Episode 18 - Survivorship: The new frontier in post-arrest care

Dr. Abella discusses a very recent American Heart Association scientific statement on cardiac arrest survivorship, increasingly recognized as an important topic around the globe. While many studies have evaluated survival to hospital discharge, or even survival at 90 or 180 days post-arrest – survival is not enough. Increasing data suggest that even among “good” neurologic survivors (those with Cerebral Performance Category 1 or 2), life-limited challenges remain, including depression, PTSD, cognitive deficits and other challenges to quality of life.

Key readings: 

Sawyer KN, et al. Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survivorship: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2020 Feb 12 [epub ahead of print]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32078390

Lilja G, et al. Return to Work and Participation in Society After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2018 Jan;11(1):e003566. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29326145

AHA Podcast on the Survivorship Scientific Statement: https://soundcloud.com/americanheartstroke/podcast-survivorship