Reperfusion therapy in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: Current insights

Although early care in out-of -hospital cardiac arrest has been improved over the past decades, survival remains poor and neurological performance after survival is often impaired. Consequently, new therapies are needed to improve outcome. As thrombotic processes such as acute myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolism are frequent causes of cardiac arrest, therapies like fibrinolysis or percutaneous coronary intervention are of interest. Both therapies can restore coronary and pulmonary perfusion in cardiac arrest patients and, additionally, fibrinolysis might prevent microthrombi to the brain. In this review, the rationale, safety and efficacy of reperfusion therapy in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest will be discussed. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. AR rights reserved.