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Cardiac arrest
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Cardiac arrest is when the heart's activity suddenly stops. Circulation collapses along with it, which is called hemodynamic collapse. Blood stops reaching the brain and the other vital organs. It is like a water pump that shuts off: the water stops flowing.
What shuts that pump off? Certain arrhythmias, which are disturbances in the heart's rhythm, keep it from pumping. One example is ventricular fibrillation. The ventricles, the chambers that push blood out of the heart, beat very fast and very irregularly, and they cannot move the blood forward.
And cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. In a heart attack, the flow of blood reaching the heart is blocked, like a clogged hose, and the heart usually does not stop suddenly. In cardiac arrest, what shuts off is the pump.
In brief
Cardiac arrest is the sudden cessation of cardiac activity with hemodynamic collapse: blood stops reaching the brain and other vital organs.
A pump that shuts off: the water stops flowing.
It is caused by certain arrhythmias that prevent pumping, such as ventricular fibrillation: the ventricles beat very fast and very irregularly and cannot move blood forward.
It is not a heart attack: in a heart attack, blood flow to the heart is blocked, and the heart does not usually stop suddenly.
Sources (3)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingSudden Cardiac Death, StatPearlsPublished
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of HealthWhat Is Cardiac Arrest?, NHLBIPublished
- MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of MedicineSudden Cardiac Arrest, MedlinePlusPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated