The director of medical affairs for Basis Medical, Dr. Robert Crawford has been practicing as a vascular surgeon since completing post-doctoral training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. A leader in the field of vascular surgery, Dr. Robert Crawford, an MD graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, has also been involved in dozens of research projects relating to the field, including research into cardiac arrest among patients diagnosed with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA).
Although aortic aneurysm treatment and perioperative critical care has improved in recent years, rAAA is still associated with an increased mortality, particularly when patients with rAAA go into cardiac arrest. In fact, mortality from the condition by itself is still 50 percent. Further, only 36 percent of patients who have cardiac arrest survive when they are admitted to the hospital. When patients have concurrent arrest and rAAA, mortality can rises up to between 75 and 100 percent.
Given the high risk of mortality among these patients, vascular intervention must be accessible to patients with rAAA who are experiencing cardiac arrest. These interventions have been linked to better survival rates among these individuals. Unfortunately, many believe that treatment is futile since emergency aortic repair, the only lifesaving therapy for cardiac arrest and rAAA, does not predict functional survival. Regardless, the chance of saving a patient remains, and because of this, aortic repair cannot be withheld from patients just because of cardiac arrest.
Although aortic aneurysm treatment and perioperative critical care has improved in recent years, rAAA is still associated with an increased mortality, particularly when patients with rAAA go into cardiac arrest. In fact, mortality from the condition by itself is still 50 percent. Further, only 36 percent of patients who have cardiac arrest survive when they are admitted to the hospital. When patients have concurrent arrest and rAAA, mortality can rises up to between 75 and 100 percent.
Given the high risk of mortality among these patients, vascular intervention must be accessible to patients with rAAA who are experiencing cardiac arrest. These interventions have been linked to better survival rates among these individuals. Unfortunately, many believe that treatment is futile since emergency aortic repair, the only lifesaving therapy for cardiac arrest and rAAA, does not predict functional survival. Regardless, the chance of saving a patient remains, and because of this, aortic repair cannot be withheld from patients just because of cardiac arrest.
