Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Cardiac arrest has a very poor prognosis, but if effective bystander BLS and prompt early defibrillation can be delivered to the patient the prognosis will improve. When to terminate a resuscitation is always a vexed question. No simple answer is available. The patient's history, the length of time to effective bystander BLS, the length of time to defibrillation and the presenting rhythm should all be taken into account. Successfully resuscitated patients, hopefully, should leave hospital as neurologically intact as possible.