A 49 year old Malay women presented with pericardial tamponade 18 months following left segmentectomy and local irradiation for carcinoma of the breast. Subsequently she developed complete heart block terminating in cardiac arrest.

CONTEXT Recent reports from 2 European cities and an earlier observation from Seattle, Wash, suggest that the number of patients treated for out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation (VF) has declined. OBJECTIVE To analyze the incidence of cardiac arrest and to examine relationships among incidence, sex, race, age, and first identified cardiac rhythm in Seattle. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS...

BACKGROUND Lipid emulsion treatment appears to have application in the treatment of local anesthetic-induced cardiac arrest. To examine whether the efficacy of lipid resuscitation in the treatment of local anesthetic-induced cardiac arrest is affected by lipophilicity, the effects of lipid infusions were compared between levobupivacaine-induced (high lipophilicity) and ropivacaine-induced (lowe...

Background:  Patients undergoing cemented hip hemiarthroplasty may develop bone cement implantation syndrome (BCIS) which is a leading cause of intraoperative complications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate cardiovascular changes during cemented hip hemiarthroplasty in elderly patients.   Methods:  Cemented hip hemiarthroplasty was performed on 72 patients with femoral neck fracture. A...

OBJECTIVES To review the literature addressing whether the use of vasopressors improves outcomes in patients who suffer cardiac arrest. METHODS Databases were searched using the terms: "(adrenaline or noradrenaline or vasopressor) and (heart arrest or cardiac arrest) and therapy". Inclusion criteria were human studies, controlled trials, meta-analysis or case series. Exclusion criteria were a...