Skip to main content

Cardiac Arrest

In this thematic series for Critical Care, the focus is on important recent developments and state-of-the art practice in the field of cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest is a major public health problem. Many thousands of people have a cardiac arrest each year worldwide, many of whom will be admitted to the ICU, where urgent and appropriate treatment is essential to their survival. Mortality rates remain high, however, and keeping up-to-date with the very latest clinical practice evidence is crucial for the ICU physician to ensure optimum patient management.

In this themed series we will feature four invited articles on cardiac arrest, One review presents the current evidence related to vasopressor use, notably epinephrine and vasopressin, in cardiac arrest resuscitation. The role of mechanical ventilation and optimal ventilatory settings are covered in another of our reviews, which highlights the importance of a personalized approach. The potential benefits of temperature control on cardiac arrest outcomes have been much studied over the last 20 years and this remains an area of hot debate. The current understanding of the role of temperature management in cardiac arrest is discussed in detail in another article, with results from recent randomized controlled studies. Finally, although the majority of the cardiac arrest literature has focused on out-of-hospital events, large cardiac arrest registries are now providing valuable epidemiological and outcome data for in-hospital cardiac arrest and the impact of various therapeutic approaches in these patients. Some of the results are summarized in one of the invited articles in this series.

Unsolicited submissions are welcome.


  1. Singapore and Osaka in Japan have comparable population sizes and prehospital management; however, the frequency of ECPR differs greatly for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients with initial shockabl...

    Authors: Yohei Okada, Nur Shahidah, Yih Yng Ng, Michael Y. C. Chia, Han Nee Gan, Benjamin S. H. Leong, Desmond R. Mao, Wei Ming Ng, Taro Irisawa, Tomoki Yamada, Tetsuro Nishimura, Takeyuki Kiguchi, Masafumi Kishimoto, Tasuku Matsuyama, Norihiro Nishioka, Kosuke Kiyohara…
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:351
  2. This work provides an epidemiological overview of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in children in Germany between 2007 and 2021. We wanted to identify modifiable factors associated with survival.

    Authors: Stephan Katzenschlager, Inga K. Kelpanides, Patrick Ristau, Matthias Huck, Stephan Seewald, Sebastian Brenner, Florian Hoffmann, Jan Wnent, Jo Kramer-Johansen, Ingvild B. M. Tjelmeland, Markus A. Weigand, Jan-Thorsten Gräsner and Erik Popp
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:349
  3. Serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) is the only recommended biomarker for multimodal prognostication in postcardiac arrest patients, but low sensitivity of absolute NSE threshold limits its utility. This study...

    Authors: Youn-Jung Kim, Yong Hwan Kim, Chun Song Youn, In Soo Cho, Su Jin Kim, Jung Hee Wee, Yoo Seok Park, Joo Suk Oh, Byung Kook Lee and Won Young Kim
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:313
  4. Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) is rapidly becoming a common treatment strategy for patients with refractory cardiac arrest. Despite its benefits, ECPR raises a variety of ethical concerns ...

    Authors: Hiromichi Naito, Masaaki Sakuraya, Takashi Hongo, Hiroaki Takada, Tetsuya Yumoto, Takashi Yorifuji, Toru Hifumi, Akihiko Inoue, Tetsuya Sakamoto, Yasuhiro Kuroda and Atsunori Nakao
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:252
  5. Prognosis after resuscitation from cardiac arrest (CA) remains poor, with high morbidity and mortality as a result of extensive cardiac and brain injury and lack of effective treatments. Hypertonic sodium lact...

    Authors: Filippo Annoni, Fuhong Su, Lorenzo Peluso, Ilaria Lisi, Enrico Caruso, Francesca Pischiutta, Elisa Gouvea Bogossian, Bruno Garcia, Hassane Njimi, Jean-Louis Vincent, Nicolas Gaspard, Lorenzo Ferlini, Jacques Creteur, Elisa R. Zanier and Fabio Silvio Taccone
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:161
  6. To determine the clinical feasibility of novel serum biomarkers in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients treated with target temperature management (TTM).

    Authors: Hwan Song, Hyo Jin Bang, Yeonho You, Jung Soo Park, Changshin Kang, Hyo Joon Kim, Kyu Nam Park, Sang Hoon Oh and Chun Song Youn
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:113

    The Correspondence to this article has been published in Critical Care 2023 27:187

  7. There is inconclusive evidence regarding the effectiveness of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. We aimed to evaluate the association betwee...

    Authors: Yeongho Choi, Jeong Ho Park, Joo Jeong, Yu Jin Kim, Kyoung Jun Song and Sang Do Shin
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:87
  8. The Chain of Survival highlights the effectiveness of early recognition of cardiac arrest and call for help, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation and early defibrillation. Most patients, however, remain in card...

    Authors: Gavin D. Perkins and Keith Couper
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:81
  9. This study aimed to assess the effect of different blood pressure levels on global cerebral metabolism in comatose patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

    Authors: Simon Mølstrøm, Troels Halfeld Nielsen, Carl-Henrik Nordstrøm, Axel Forsse, Søren Møller, Søren Venø, Dmitry Mamaev, Tomas Tencer, Ásta Theódórsdóttir, Thomas Krøigård, Jacob Møller, Christian Hassager, Jesper Kjærgaard, Henrik Schmidt and Palle Toft
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:73
  10. This study aimed to investigate the association between ultra-early (within 6 h after return of spontaneous circulation [ROSC]) brain diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) and neurological out...

    Authors: Changshin Kang, Jin Hong Min, Jung Soo Park, Yeonho You, Wonjoon Jeong, Hong Joon Ahn, Yong Nam In, In Ho Lee, Hye Seon Jeong, Byung Kook Lee and Jinwoo Jeong
    Citation: Critical Care 2023 27:16
  11. In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is associated with a high risk of death, but mortality rates are decreasing. The latest epidemiological and outcome data from several cardiac arrest registries are helping to ...

    Authors: James Penketh and Jerry P. Nolan
    Citation: Critical Care 2022 26:376

    The Correspondence to this article has been published in Critical Care 2023 27:22

    The Correspondence to this article has been published in Critical Care 2023 27:17

  12. Most of the patients who die after cardiac arrest do so because of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI). Experimental evidence shows that temperature control targeted at hypothermia mitigates HIBI. In 2002, on...

    Authors: Claudio Sandroni, Daniele Natalini and Jerry P. Nolan
    Citation: Critical Care 2022 26:361