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Use in Cardiac arrest
The medical term for the condition in which a person's heart has stopped is
cardiac arrest (also referred to as cardiorespiratory arrest). CPR is used on
patients in cardiac arrest in order to oxygenate the blood and maintain a
cardiac output to keep vital organs alive.
Blood circulation and oxygenation are absolute requirements in transporting
oxygen to the tissues. The brain may sustain damage after blood flow has been
stopped for about four minutes and irreversible damage after about seven
minutes. If blood flow ceases for 1 or 2 hours, the cells of the body die unless
they get an adequately gradual bloodflow, (provided by cooling and gradual
warming, rarely, in nature such as in a cold stream of water or by an advanced
medical team). Because of that CPR is generally only effective if performed
within 7 minutes of the stoppage of blood flow . The heart also rapidly loses
the ability to maintain a normal rhythm. Low body temperatures as sometimes seen
in drowning prolong the time the brain survives. Following cardiac arrest,
effective CPR enables enough oxygen to reach the brain to delay brain death, and
allows the heart to remain responsive to defibrillation attempts.
If the patient still has a pulse, but is not breathing, this is called
respiratory arrest and artificial respiration is more appropriate. However,
since people often have difficulty detecting a pulse, CPR may be used in both
cases, especially when taught as first aid (see below).
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