Cardiac arrest in pregnancy

Jacqueline Kikuchi1, Shad Deering1

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Seminars in Perinatology
|December 17, 2017
PubMed

Cardiac arrest in pregnancy is a rare and frightening event. Although not every obstetrician will encounter cardiac arrest in pregnancy during their career, it is imperative to be prepared to manage this acute emergency. The management is particularly complex due to maternal physiologic changes from pregnancy and the simultaneous management of two patients, the mother and fetus. In 2010, the American Heart Association released their first scientific statement on guidelines for management of cardiac arrest in pregnancy that has since been updated in 2015. All providers who care for pregnant patients should be aware of these guidelines and ready to manage cardiac arrest in pregnancy because correct and timely interventions can affect real world outcomes.

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