Sudden cardiac arrest is the sudden, unexpected loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness. Sudden cardiac arrest usually results from an electrical disturbance in your heart that disrupts its pumping action and causes blood to stop flowing to the rest of your body.
Sudden cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, which occurs when blood flow to a portion of the heart is blocked, depriving the heart muscle of necessary oxygen. Like a heart attack, however, sudden cardiac arrest almost always occurs in the context of other underlying heart problems, particularly coronary artery disease.
Sudden cardiac arrest is a medical emergency. If not treated immediately, it is fatal, resulting in sudden cardiac death. With fast, appropriate medical care, survival is possible. Administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) — or even just rapid compressions to the chest — can improve the chances of survival until emergency personnel arrive.
Causes
The immediate cause of sudden cardiac arrest is usually an abnormality in your heart rhythm (arrhythmia), the result of a malfunction in your heart's electrical system.
Unlike other muscles in your body, which rely on nerve connections to receive the electrical stimulation they need to function, your heart has its own electrical stimulator — a specialized group of cells called the sinus node, located in the upper right chamber (right atrium) of your heart. The sinus node generates electrical impulses that flow in an orderly manner through your heart to synchronize heart rate and coordinate the pumping of blood from your heart to the rest of your body.
If something goes wrong with the sinus node or the flow of electric impulses through your heart, an arrhythmia can result, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow or in an irregular fashion. Often, these interruptions in rhythm are momentary and harmless. But some types of arrhythmia can be serious and lead to a sudden stop in heart function (sudden cardiac arrest).
The most common cause of cardiac arrest is an arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation — when rapid, erratic electrical impulses cause your ventricles to quiver uselessly instead of pumping blood. Without an effective heartbeat, your blood pressure plummets, cutting off blood supply to your vital organs.
Most of the time, cardiac-arrest-inducing arrhythmia don't occur on their own. In a person with a normal, healthy heart, a sustained arrhythmia is unlikely to develop without some outside trigger, such as an electrical shock, the use of illegal drugs, or trauma to the chest at just the wrong time of the heart's cycle (commotio cordis).
consciousness (noun) - the condition of being conscious: the normal state of being awake and able to understand what is happening around you
disturbance (noun) - something that stops you from working, the act of disturbing something
heart attack (noun) - a sudden painful and dangerous condition in which your heart stops beating properly
deprive (verb) - to take something away from someone or something
coronary (adjective) - of or relating to the heart and especially to the vessels that supply blood to the heart
fatal (adjective) - causing death
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (noun) - a way of trying to save the life of someone who has stopped breathing and whose heart has stopped beating
survival (noun) - the state or fact of continuing to live or exist especially in spite of difficult conditions
chamber (noun) - a small space inside something
impulses (noun) - a small amount of energy that moves from one area to another
synchronize (verb) - to cause (things) to agree in time or to make (things) happen at the same time and speed, to happen at the same time and speed
momentary (adjective) - lasting a very short time : lasting only a moment
quiver (verb) - to shake rapidly with small movements or tremble
vital (adjective) - needed by your body in order to keep living
organ (noun) - a part of the body (such as the heart or liver) that has a particular function
sustain (verb) - to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc.
trigger (noun) - something that causes something else to happen
trauma (noun) - a serious injury to a person's body
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