Abstract
Sudden death is a real concern for nowadays medicine, especially as it can occur in people with no signs of disease at all. It can be the first symptom of an underlying problem. It may be defined as an unexpected event occurring with no warning signs, within less than an hour, in a person with a known but stable cardiac problem, or in a person with an unknown but pre-existing problem. Often a cardiac problem is the substrate for cardiac arrest (Table 1), but many other diseases can be the underlying cause of sudden death, which in 75% of cases is due to ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia, in 20% to brad- yarrhythmia, and in 5% atrioventricular dissociation [1, 2]. In Italy it strikes more than 60 000 people per year, with a 10% overall mortality, 20% of which is made up of people with no previous signs of disease at all [1].
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Santomauro, M. et al. (2004). In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Are We Well Enough Equipped and Prepared to Face It?. In: Raviele, A. (eds) Cardiac Arrhythmias 2003. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2137-2_75
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2137-2_75
Publisher Name: Springer, Milano
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