Anesthesia and Pain Medicine  2012;7(4):329-332

Cardiac arrest with pulseless electrical activity during a robot-assisted distal gastrectomy: A case report.

Younghoon JEON 1 ; Young Hoon PARK ; Doo Youn HWANG ; Seong Wook HONG ; Taeha RYU ; Sung Sik PARK

Affiliations

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Keywords

Cardiac arrest; Hypovolemia; Pulseless electrical activity; Robot-assisted distal gastrectomy

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

A 59-year-old woman was scheduled to undergo a robot-assisted distal gastrectomy under general anesthesia. During the operation, the vital signs were maintained in normal range. After 7 hours of surgery, the pulse oxymeter graph became flat and the end tidal CO2 concentration suddenly decreased. Palpation of the carotid artery revealed no heart beat but the EKG continued to show sinus rhythm. Pulseless electrical activity (PEA) was diagnosed. An advanced cardiopulmonary life support protocol for PEA was immediately initiated, which included chest compressions and doses of IV cardiovascular drugs. However, in spite of continuous CPR, the heart wasn't recovered from the arrest. We experienced cardiac arrest for pulseless electrical activity during robot-assisted distal gastrectomy.