[Resuscitated victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: is it always indicated emergent coronary angiography and revascularization?].

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with return of spontaneous circulation represents a great challenge even for advanced healthcare systems because of the high risk and frequency of this event. The most common cause of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is an acute coronary syndrome, and noninvasive diagnostic tools are quite inadequate. The poor outcome observed so far seems to improve significantly when early treatment with hypothermia and myocardial revascularization is performed. Emergent coronary angiography and myocardial revascularization seem to be reasonable and appropriate therapeutic option not only for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction but also for other patient subsets.