Resuscitation
-
The quality of life in long-term survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest may be a good outcome measure after resuscitation. Therefore, the psychosocial situation and quality of life in such patients after successful resuscitation was evaluated. ⋯ The quality of life was associated with few changes in psychosocial profile after successful resuscitation. The subjective negative factors bore little impact on the quality of daily living in our patients. Thus, continued efforts to improve out-of-hospital resuscitation measures for cardiac arrest are justified since long-term survivors can expect a good quality of life after successful resuscitation.
-
To describe survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to the interval between collapse and start of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). ⋯ Among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest in whom the interval between collapse and start of CPR was known, we found that in 80% of the cases CPR was started within the first minute after collapse. Among these patients, survival to discharge was twice that of patients in whom CPR was started later. These results highlight the importance of immediate CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrest.
-
Comparative Study
Evaluation of a new method for the carotid pulse check in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The ability to determine the presence or absence of a central pulse remains a key skill in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for healthcare providers, despite studies showing that they perform this poorly. The aim of this study was to evaluate a modified technique for palpation of the carotid pulse. ⋯ The new method of carotid pulse palpation results in a more rapid determination of the carotid pulse when it is present in all positions except with the neck neutral on the floor. This will only be clinically significant if trauma is suspected.
-
We investigated the plasma levels of endothelin 1/2 in patients with acute symptoms relating to a known or newly diagnosed aortic aneurysm in order to investigate the possible role of peptides in the development of the disease. ⋯ Endothelin 1/2 levels are elevated in patients with acute dissection or ruptured aneurysm, but they are not an independent predictor of survival.
-
To study whether two different types of monophasic waveform shocks (i.e. monophasic damped sinusoidal [MDS] and monophasic truncated exponential [MTE] waveform shocks) are of equivalent efficacy. ⋯ Our data suggest disparity in efficacy between MDS waveform shocks and MTE waveform shocks. Furthermore, our findings should be taken into consideration when the issue of the control group(s) in future clinical trials on new waveforms is discussed.