Primary coronary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction complicated by out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Our data indicate that reperfusion therapy with emergency catheterization, adjunctive hemodynamic support, and catheter-based mechanical reperfusion therapies is a therapeutic option in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest surviving to emergency center admission, even in the presence of a depressed sensorium. We currently limit this therapy to patients with electrocardiographic evidence of transmural injury.