Early Head CT After Cardiac Arrest: One Center's Experience

Neurological emergencies can result in cardiac arrest, and neurological injury can occur as a result of cardiac arrest. These authors retrospectively assessed the utility of head computed tomography (CT) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who survived for at least 24 hours at a single academic center from 2007 to 2015.

Of 213 patients in the analysis, 115 (54%) underwent head CT within 24 hours. In 43 patients (20% of all patients; 37% of those who underwent head CT), head CT showed abnormalities, such as loss of gray-white differentiation, global cerebral edema, and ischemic stroke. The authors note that head CT findings led to changes in management in 15 patients. These changes included transfer to the neurological intensive c…