The World Congress on Drowning 2002: A Move Towards the Future

Although much progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have suffered an acute myocardial event and require resuscitation, many people became aware that little progress had been made in the resuscitation of drowning victims. It was felt by many that the pathophysiological processes in drowning, which led the patient to a resuscitation situation, were fundamentally different from the cardiac patient and therefore needed a different approach in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Other observations were that therapeutic innovations were limited, outcome had not improved and reliable international data on the incidence of drowning were lacking.