Cardiac Arrest Treatment

Cardiac Arrest Treatment in India

The first line of treatment for a cardiac arrest event is CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation which can temporarily delay cardiac arrest till advanced medical attention is available. Ventricular defibrillation done using an external defibrillator machine is the treatment done after CPR or before CPR if the machine is accessible. This helps in preventing further organ damage in other parts of the body due to oxygen deprivation. Defibrillation is done by specially trained responders. Once that is done, the patient should be hospitalized immediately where the doctors will run several tests to determine the extent of damage (if any) and accordingly perform surgical procedure (usually to remove clots or blockages) or prescribe appropriate medications.

An electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) showing signs of no heartbeat or a ventricular arrhythmia are diagnostic signs of cardiac arrest. Other diagnostic tests for a cardiac arrest are MRI, CT Scan, and angiogram of the heart. Cardiac arrest can be predicted by chest discomfort, sudden passing out, no breathing, no pulse, highly irregular heartbeats, and pain radiating towards left arm. Cardiac arrest is fatal if left untreated for more than 2-3 minutes by CPR as ischemia starts affecting the brain in 5 mins with severe brain damage occurring in 8 minutes.

CPR should be continued while defibrillator is being prepared. The default charge of 200 joules is usually used. The pads once charged, are firmly pressed to the chest with a force of 25-30 lbs. The pads should not come in contact with the electrodes of ECG nor with any metal object. No one should be touching the patient. Defibrillator helps in imparting immediate electrical current to the myocardium to initiate the electrical signals in the heart for it to beat. CPR can increase the survival rates of cardiac arrest patients by double or triple times. Defibrillation has a success rate of 72% if done within the first three minutes but if 10 minutes are lost, the survival rates are close to nill. Post defibrillation, the patient is put in an ICU to monitor vitals, rhythm, oxygenation, airway, mental state.

Usually, patients surviving a cardiac arrest are kept in the hospital for 2 days to a week for mionitoring all other organ status and overall health. If the patient had been under a major bypass surgery, he/she is kept for longer duration. Cardiac arrest treatment cost in India can range from 3.3 lacs to 10 Lacs and even more in private hospitals.

Once released, the patients will be put on medications and have to temporarily abstain from certain activities like driving, sexual intercourse, lifting heavy objects, strenous activities till doctor says so. The patient might even face thinking issues which are common after discharge and occur due to brain damage that had occurred during the attack.

The first few minutes during a cardiac arrest are the most critical ones and if treatment is proper, the patient can live on to live a long life. Dania Medicare Solutions bring in the most latest technology in treating cardiac arrest and providing the much-needed advanced medical care and attention during those first few minutes. Dania Medicare Solution boasts the best fleet of in-house doctors and surgeons with a long history of successful cardiac treatments with high expectancy rate including emergency care.