POSTRESUSCITATION DISEASE - A NEW NOSOLOGICAL ENTITY - ITS REALITY AND SIGNIFICANCE

Experimental and clinical investigations of patients resuscitated afte r cardiac arrest or terminal states, testify to the fact that in the p ost-resuscitation period alongside processes of recovery and compensat ion, a number of new pathological phenomena develop. The latter differ substantially from those caused by ischemia and hypoxia. These post-r esuscitation processes involve not only the CNS, but also the entire b ody and may lead to severe disability and even death of the seemingly successfully revived body. The data available suggests that this post- resuscitation pathology is a new nosological entity - a post-resuscita tion disease. This disease has it own specific etiology, pathogenesis, variants of the clinical course (a number of syndromes) and the syste m of treatment and rehabilitation. In view of the ever wider use of re suscitation in clinical practice, it is expedient to organize an all-r ound study of this nosological entity, the optimum systems of its trea tment, and to include this entity into International Classification of Diseases of WHO.