Freiburg surgeons develop new treatment method to improve survival after cardiac arrest
Around 50,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest in Germany every year. When occurring outside a hospital, the chances of survival are only ten percent. Survivors often suffer from severe permanent neurological damage. On July 21st, 2021, researchers from the Faculty of Medicine - University of Freiburg, Germany, published together with German and US colleagues a review article in the journal
Nature Reviews Neuroscience. They describe the most important therapeutic factors for successful resuscitation.
The scientists name the therapy concept based on these factors CARL (Controlled Automated Reperfusion of the whole body). In recent years, the Freiburg physicians and perfusionists have already developed a special and mobile heart-lung machine for resuscitation that allows CARL therapy for the first time. One of the first persons treated with CARL therapy successfully survived a cardiac arrest after about 120 minutes of resuscitation. The affected person suffered no brain damage.