Resuscitation in special circumstances

Resuscitation needs to be modified in specific circumstances. Early recognition of signs and symptoms along with effective treatment will often prevent cardiac arrest, so it is important to be able to identify specific special circumstances.

These special circumstances account for a larger proportion of cardiac arrests in younger patients with no co-existing disease. It is essential to ask for appropriate expert help early for most of these conditions as they will require specialist interventions.

Survival in all these conditions still relies on using the ABCDE approach to help prevent cardiac arrest. If cardiac arrest does occur, high quality CPR with minimal interruption and treatment of reversible causes are still the most important interventions.

Each of the topics in this module will contain a case study based upon a patient’s condition which can be described as a special circumstance.

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