Post-resuscitation disease--a new nosological entity. Its reality and significance

Experimental and clinical investigations of patients resuscitated after cardiac arrest or terminal states, testify to the fact that in the post-resuscitation period alongside processes of recovery and compensation, a number of new pathological phenomena develop. The latter differ substantially from those caused by ischemia and hypoxia. These post-resuscitation processes involve not only the CNS, but also the entire body and may lead to severe disability and even death of the seemingly successfully revived body. The data available suggests that this post-resuscitation pathology is a new nosological entity--a post-resuscitation disease. This disease has it own specific etiology, pathogenesis, variants of the clinical course (a number of syndromes) and the system of treatment and rehabilitation. In view of the ever wider use of resuscitation in clinical practice, it is expedient to organize an all-round study of this nosological entity, the optimum systems of its treatment, and to include this entity into International Classification of Diseases of WHO.