Postresuscitation hypokalemia in a patient with a normal prearrest serum potassium level

111

18 (19891111- 122 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.

Resuscitation,

LITERATURE

OF RESUSCITATION

It is difficult to keep abreast of new knowledge in the area of resuscitation as it crosses so many specialities and appears in such a diverse and large number of medical publications. Inclusion of a section of bibliographic reviews is intended to assist the resuscitation researcher in keeping abreast of important literature. An additional function of this section will be to give historical perspective to the resuscitation work of today. From time to time, a topic will be chosen and important previous work in the area will be reviewed. Literature references will appear in one of three formats: 1. Article title and journal citation only 2. Article title, journal citation and abstract 3. Article title, journal citation, abstract and editorial comment I hope that this section will provide a useful service to the subscribers of “Resuscitation”. As always, your comments are welcome. John B. McCabe, M.D., FACEP Editor

ABSTRACTS Postresuscitation

hypokalemia in a patient with a normal prearrest

serum potassium level

Salerno, D.M. Hennepin

County Medical

Center,

Minneapolis,

MN 55415, USA.

ANN. INT. MED., 108kV(19881836-837 Pneumoperitoneum

as a complication

of cardiopulmonary

Hargarten, K.M., Aprahamian, C., Mateer, J. Department of Trauma and Emergency Medicine,

Medical

resuscitation College

of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,

WI,

USA.

AM. J. EMERG. MED., 6(41(19881358- 361. A case of pneumoperitoneum following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is reported and 11 cases in the literature are reviewed. Four patients had laparotomies failing to demonstrate any visceral perforation or evidence of peritonitis in spite of the massive pneumoperitoneum present. Operative intervention immediately after resuscitation is associated with potentially high morbidity and mortality. Several diagnostic tools are used, including peritoneal lavage and contrast media tests, to accurately diagnose perforated viscus. To avoid an unnecessary celiotomy a clinical treat-