Life Support During Clinical Death
The purpose of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during cardiac arrest is ideally reversal of the clinically dead state by restoration of blood circulation and breathing. However there is great variation in the effectiveness of CPR for this purpose. Blood pressure is very low during manual CPR, resulting in only a ten minute average extension of survival. Yet there are cases of patients regaining consciousness during CPR while still in full cardiac arrest. In absence of cerebral function monitoring or frank return to consciousness, the neurological status of patients undergoing CPR is intrinsically uncertain. It is somewhere between the state of clinical death and a normal functioning state.
Patients supported by methods that certainly maintain enough blood circulation and oxygenation for sustaining life during stopped heartbeat and breathing, such as cardiopulmonary bypass, are not customarily considered to be clinically dead. All parts of the body except the heart and lungs continue to function normally. Clinical death occurs only if machines providing sole circulatory support are turned off.
Read more about this topic: Clinical Death
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