Cardiac arrest

BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac arrest accounts for approximately 15% of deaths in developed nations, with poor survival rate. The American Heart Association states that epinephrine is reasonable for patients with cardiac arrest, though the literature behind its use is not strong. OBJECTIVE: To review the evidence behind epinephrine for cardiac arrest. DISCUSSION: Sudden cardiac arrest causes over 450,000 deaths annually in the United States. The American Heart Association recommends epinephrine may be reasonable in patients with cardiac arrest, as part of Advanced Cardiac Life Support...

BACKGROUND: During out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, it is unclear how long prehospital resuscitation efforts should be continued to maximize lives saved. METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 2005 and 2012, we enrolled 282 183 adult patients with bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from the All-Japan Utstein Registry. Prehospital resuscitation duration was calculated as the time interval from call receipt to return of spontaneous circulation in cases achieving prehospital return of spontaneous circulation or from call receipt to hospital arrival in cases not achieving prehospital return of spontaneous circulation...

BACKGROUND: Guidelines on neonatal resuscitation recommend 90 chest compressions (CCs) and 30 manual inflations (3:1) per minute in newborns. The study aimed to determine whether CC s during sustained inflations (SIs) improves the recovery of asphyxiated newborn piglets in comparison with coordinated 3:1 resuscitation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Term newborn piglets (n=8/group) were anesthetized, intubated, instrumented, and exposed to 45-minute normocapnic hypoxia followed by asphyxia...

BACKGROUND: Recent guidelines for infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation emphasize that all rescuers should minimize interruption of chest compression, even for endotracheal intubation. OBJECTIVE: We compared the utility of application of a gum-elastic bougie (GEB) plus Miller laryngoscope (Mil) with the Mil alone during chest compression on an infant mannequin. METHODS: Sixteen anesthesiologists with more than 2 years of experience performed tracheal intubation on an infant mannequin using the Mil or Mil plus 6Fr GEB, with or without chest compression...

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to assess cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality and rescuer fatigue when rescuers perform one or two minutes of continuous chest compressions. METHODS: This prospective crossover study included 148 lay rescuers who were continuously trained in a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course. The subjects underwent a 120-min training program comprising continuous chest compressions. After the course, half of the volunteers performed one minute of continuous chest compressions, and the others performed two minutes, both on a manikin model...

OBJECTIVE: In contrast to the resuscitation guidelines of children and adults, guidelines on neonatal resuscitation recommend synchronized 90 chest compressions with 30 manual inflations (3:1) per minute in newborn infants. The study aimed to determine if chest compression with asynchronous ventilation improves the recovery of bradycardic asphyxiated newborn piglets compared to 3:1 Compression:Ventilation cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). INTERVENTION AND MEASUREMENTS: Term newborn piglets (n=8/group) were anesthetized, intubated, instrumented and exposed to 45-min normocapnic hypoxia followed by asphyxia...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the distending pressure needed to achieve sufficient tidal volume (VT ) delivery during continuous chest compressions (CC) superimposed by sustained inflation (SI) (CC+SI). DESIGN: Randomised animal/manikin trial. SETTING: University laboratory. SUBJECTS: Cadaver piglets/manikin. INTERVENTIONS: SI distending pressures of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 cm H2 O were delivered in random order during CC+SI for 2 min each...

BACKGROUND: Complete chest wall recoil improves hemodynamics during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by generating relatively negative intrathoracic pressure and thus draws venous blood back to the heart, providing cardiac preload prior to the next chest compression phase. OBJECTIVE: Phase I was an observational case series to evaluate the quality of chest wall recoil during CPR performed by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel on patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest...

BACKGROUND: Shorter manual chest compression pauses prior to defibrillation attempts is reported to improve the defibrillation success rate. Mechanical load-distributing band (LDB-) CPR enables shocks without compression pause. We studied pre-shock pause and termination of ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia 5s post-shock (TOF) and return of organized rhythm (ROOR) with LDB and manual (M-) CPR. METHODS: In a secondary analysis from the Circulation Improving Resuscitation Care trial, patients with initial shockable rhythm and interpretable post-shock rhythms were included...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare rescuer fatigue and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality between standard 30:2 CPR (ST-CPR) and chest compression only CPR (CO-CPR) performed for 8 minutes on a realistic manikin by following the 2010 CPR guidelines. METHODS: All 36 volunteers (laypersons; 18 men and 18 women) were randomized to ST-CPR or CO-CPR at first, and then each CPR technique was performed for 8 minutes with a 3-hour rest interval. We measured the mean blood pressure (MBP) of the volunteers before and after performing each CPR technique, and continuously monitored the heart rate (HR) of the volunteers during each CPR technique using the MRx monitor...

BACKGROUND: During cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the interruption of manual chest compressions for rescue breathing reduces blood flow and possibly survival. We assessed whether outcomes after continuous compressions with positive-pressure ventilation differed from those after compressions that were interrupted for ventilations at a ratio of 30 compressions to two ventilations. METHODS: This cluster-randomized trial with crossover included 114 emergency medical service (EMS) agencies...

Each year in the US, some four hundred thousand newborns need help breathing when they are born. Due to the frequent need for resuscitation at birth, it is vital to have evidence-based care guidelines and to provide effective neonatal resuscitation training. Every five years, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) reviews the science of neonatal resuscitation. In the US, the American Heart Association (AHA) develops treatment guidelines based on the ILCOR science review, and the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) translates the AHA guidelines into an educational curriculum...

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BACKGROUND: This study aimed to understand factors associated with paramedics' decision to attempt resuscitation in traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and to characterise resuscitation attempts ≤10min in patients who die at the scene. METHODS: The Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry (VACAR) was used to identify all cases of traumatic OHCA between July 2008 and June 2014. We excluded cases <16 years of age or with a mechanism of hanging or drowning...

Despite its use since the 1960s, the safety or effectiveness of adrenaline as a treatment for cardiac arrest has never been comprehensively evaluated in a clinical trial. Although most studies have found that adrenaline increases the chance of return of spontaneous circulation for short periods, many studies found harmful effects on the brain and raise concern that adrenaline may reduce overall survival and/or good neurological outcome. The PARAMEDIC-2 trial seeks to determine if adrenaline is safe and effective in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest...

BACKGROUND: The effect of family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the family members themselves and the medical team remains controversial. METHODS: We enrolled 570 relatives of patients who were in cardiac arrest and were given CPR by 15 prehospital emergency medical service units. The units were randomly assigned either to systematically offer the family member the opportunity to observe CPR (intervention group) or to follow standard practice regarding family presence (control group)...

BACKGROUND: Survival is less than 10% for pediatric patients following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It is not known if more time on the scene of the cardiac arrest and advanced life support interventions by emergency services personnel are associated with improved survival. AIM: This study was performed to determine which times on the scene and which prehospital interventions were associated with improved survival. METHODS: We studied patients aged 3 days to 19 years old with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, using the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium cardiac arrest database from 11 North American regions, from 2005 to 2012...

BACKGROUND: Prehospital care provided by specially trained, physician-based emergency services (P-EMS) is an integrated part of the emergency medical systems in many developed countries. To what extent P-EMS increases survival and favourable outcomes is still unclear. The aim of the study was thus to investigate ambulance runs initially assigned 'life-saving missions' with emphasis on long-term outcome in patients treated by the Mobile Emergency Care Unit (MECU) in Odense, Denmark METHODS: All MECU runs are registered in a database by the attending physician, stating, among other parameters, the treatment given, outcome of the treatment and the patient's diagnosis...

We validated the basic life support termination of resuscitation (BLS TOR) rule retrospectively using Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) data of metropolitan emergency medical service (EMS) in Korea. We also tested it by investigating the scene time interval for supplementing the BLS TOR rule. OHCA database of Seoul (January 2011 to December 2012) was used, which is composed of ambulance data and hospital medical record review. EMS-treated OHCA and 19 yr or older victims were enrolled, after excluding cases occurred in the ambulance and with incomplete information...

INTRODUCTION: Endotracheal intubation (ETI) is currently considered superior to supraglottic airway devices (SGA) for survival and other outcomes among adults with non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aimed to determine if the research supports this conclusion by conducting a systematic review. METHODS: We searched the MEDLINE, Scopus and CINAHL databases for studies published between January 1, 1980, and 30 April 30, 2013, which compared pre-hospital use of ETI with SGA for outcomes of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC); survival to hospital admission; survival to hospital discharge; and favorable neurological or functional status...