Part 12: Cardiac Arrest in Special Situations

Part 12.1: Cardiac Arrest Associated With AsthmaAsthma is responsible for more than 2 million visits to the emergency department (ED) in the United States each year, with 1 in 4 patients requiring admission to a hospital. 1Annually there are 5,000 to 6,000 asthma-related deaths in the United States, many occurring in the prehospital setting. 2 Severe asthma accounts for approximately 2% to 20% of admissions to intensive care units, with up to one third of these patients requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. 3This section focuses on the evaluation and treatment of patients with near-fatal asthma.Several consensus groups have developed excellent guidelines for the management of asthma that are available on the World Wide Web