Medical Category: Cardiovascular

Background: Hypoxemia and hypoperfusion are important factors in outcomes after ROSC.  While hypoxemia (SpO2 <90%) is clearly deleterious, it is unclear if hyperoxia is beneficial.  Recent studies on patients requiring critical care have demonstrated that hyperoxia is harmful and instead …

Background: The Calcium for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (COCA) trial was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of calcium compared to placebo in OHCA.  COCA found no improvement in sustained ROSC but, rather, a trend towards harm for their primary outcome. Additionally, …

Background Information: Multiple illness severity scores have been developed for use after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Unfortunately, these rely on information that is not immediately available to providers in the early hours following return of …

Take Home Points AVNRT is a common tachydysrhythmia that results from a reentrant loop within the AV node. Unstable patients with AVNRT should be considered for immediate synchronized electrical cardioversion. Stable patients with AVNRT can have a trial of vagal …

Damping is the influence within a system that is a dissipation of energy during an oscillation.  In other words, think of damping like a shock absorber. Imagine a patient presenting with altered mental status.  All we know about the patient …