COMMON CAUSES OF SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST

By Rod Brouhard, EMT-P. Medically reviewed by Michael Menna, DO. Updated on

December 13, 2020
Cardiac arrest is a medical term that some may find difficult to understand. On the surface,
it's very easy: "Cardiac" means "heart" and "arrest" means "to stop." Any time you see the
term "arrest" paired up with a body system, it refers to that system ceasing its function. For
example, respiratory arrest means the same thing as "not breathing."
Sudden Stops
To keep things manageable, we're going to focus on sudden cardiac arrest. Below are the
most common causes of sudden cardiac arrest. Each cause includes at least one example.
Regardless of the cause of sudden cardiac arrest, CPR is the first treatment and remains the
gold standard. Whether you are a little league coach or a brain surgeon, CPR is performed
the same way.
Cardiac Arrhythmia
By far, the most common cause of cardiac arrest—especially sudden cardiac arrest—is an
arrhythmia. A cardiac arrhythmia is a problem in the heart's electrical communication
system, the system responsible for making the heart beat regularly at the right rate. Of all
the causes of cardiac arrest, this is the one most likely to actually cause the heart to stop.
Asystole is the medical term for the cardiac arrhythmia most people know best—the flat line
on an electrocardiogram (it even had its own movie). Ventricular fibrillation is the
arrhythmia most often responsible for sudden cardiac arrest and is one of the most
treatable if quickly corrected.
Bleeding and Shock
Shock is a complicated medical condition with several causes. A simplified version is
basically to say shock is really low blood pressure. If the blood pressure gets too low, there
won't be a pulse or enough blood flowing to the brain to keep the victim alive.
Electrolyte Imbalances
Electrolytes are important for body chemistry to function correctly. Calcium, sodium, and
potassium are the most important electrolytes.
Calcium and potassium have to be in balance—sitting on either side of cell membranes,
ready to switch places—in order to cause muscles to contract or nerves to transmit
impulses. Once calcium and potassium swap places and cause things to happen, sodium
puts them back in their place for the next time.
If there aren't enough of one or two or all of these electrolytes, then the heart muscle cells
can't move, which means the heart won't pump. Heat illness patients (heat
exhaustion or heat stroke), kidney failure patients, and people on certain types of
medications are prone to electrolyte imbalances.