Resuscitation
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Multicenter Study
Long-term outcome of paediatric cardiorespiratory arrest in Spain.
To analyse the final outcome of cardiorespiratory arrest (CRA) in children and the neurological and functional state of survivors at 1 year. ⋯ Prognosis of CRA in children continues to be poor in terms of survival but quite good in terms of neurological and functional status among survivors. Additional strategies and efforts are needed to improve the short-term prognosis of paediatric CRA. However, the long-term outcome of survivors is reassuring.
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Comparative Study
Cerebral density on CT immediately after a successful resuscitation of cardiopulmonary arrest correlates with outcome.
To evaluate whether cerebral CT findings taken immediately after successful resuscitation from cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) correlate with the outcome or not. ⋯ Although the influence of age cannot be disregarded, the CT number of the putamen and cortex, and also the corticomedullary contrast correlated with outcome of hypoxic encephalopathy even when cerebral CT was performed within 1 h after ROSC following CPA.
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In 1994, all emergency medical services (EMS) ambulance officers in Singapore were trained to perform pre-hospital defibrillation with semi-automated external defibrillators (AED). All non-traumatic cardiac arrest patients over 10 years old were included, excluding those who were obviously dead and children below 36 kg. The data were collected by the ambulance officers according to the Utstein guidelines. ⋯ Our survival rate of bystander witnessed VF/VT arrest is comparable to large metropolitan cities in the USA. The determinants of survival include EMS witnessed arrest and VF/VT arrest. Increased quantity and quality of bystander CPR rate may improve the outcome in bystander witnessed cardiac arrest.
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The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between outcome from cardiac arrest and infection status at the time of in-hospital cardiac arrest. ⋯ Infection may be becoming an increasingly important association with cardiac arrest in the hospitalised population. Initial survival from cardiac arrest is the same as for non-infected patients, but longer term survival is much poorer. Long-term survival from ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia is relatively poor, in spite of similar initial success.
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Comparative Study
A study comparing the usability of fully automatic versus semi-automatic defibrillation by untrained nursing students.
Current international guidelines prefer the use of semi-automatic external defibrillators (SAEDs) over fully automatic external defibrillators (FAEDs). However, there is a lack of evidence supporting this recommendation. We conducted a study of usability with nursing students comparing the FAED version against the SAED version of the Lifepak CR Plus AED (Medtronic, Redmond, USA). We hypothesized that FAED use would limit the number of operator-device interactions, thereby increasing compliance by the rescuer, safety and speed. ⋯ Despite a lack of BLS skills and AED training, the majority of students demonstrated safe and effective use of the AED. The use of the FAED version of the CR Plus resulted in increased compliance with the protocol and reduced variability in time to deliver three shocks. Further research is needed to confirm these findings in other groups of first responders.