If the person does not regain consciousness after the infarction, the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the cardiac massage and ventricular defibrillation are vital because the irrigation of the heart is uninterrupted, the cardiac cells die. They have given way to a fibrous scar, incapable of contracting and therefore making the cardiac muscle function.
At the arrival of the rescue team, anticoagulants, antiagregants, thrombolytics and vasodilatators are injected. Once the site of obstruction of the coronary artery identified by angiography, the angioplasty or atherectomy will enable the reperfusion of the myocardium.
In case of multiple lesions or recurrence, the angioplasty is useless and a coronary bypass must be carryied out, or a cardiac transplantation for the most desperate cases.
Thereafter, to overcome the weakness of the heart, the placement of a pacemaker can be considered.
New treatments have been emerging during the past few years : transmyocardial laser, curietherapy, angiogenesis, artificial heart or even injection of stem cells.