Resuscitation outside the Hospital — What's Lacking?

Abstract

DESPITE the widespread implementation of emergency-resuscitation programs since the 1960s, only modest gains in the rate of successful resuscitation after cardiopulmonary arrest have been realized. Have we failed? Was the concept of resuscitation outside the hospital poorly conceived? Are treatments ineffective? To place these questions in their proper context, it is important to remember that before emergency medical care was available, cardiac arrest was almost always fatal, and that given the circumstances necessary for resuscitation to be successful, it is remarkable that anyone survives.The rationale for cardiac resuscitation outside the hospital is based on the fact that in most . . .