Resuscitation
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As 70-80% of cardiac arrests occur at home, widespread training is needed to increase the likelihood of basic life support (BLS) being performed before the arrival of Emergency Medical Services personnel. Teaching BLS in public schools has been recommended to achieve this. ⋯ Three months after a BLS course, adults had higher overall BLS skill retention scores than school children when using a simple personal resuscitation manikin.
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Supplementary oxygen is used routinely during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). High ambient oxygen levels from ventilation circuits have caused fatal fires and explosions. The Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System (LUCAS) device is driven by > 70 l min(-1) oxygen which is also likely to increase ambient oxygen concentrations and cause similar risk of fire and explosion. This study used simulated CPR with a LUCAS device to measure resulting ambient oxygen concentrations and assess safety of the device. ⋯ The use of oxygen to drive the LUCAS device results in a rapid increase in ambient oxygen concentration to levels likely to risk injury or death from fire. Ambulance services and hospitals using the device must be alerted to these dangers immediately.
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A recently published study has shown that survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Göteborg is almost three times higher than in Stockholm. The aim of this study was to investigate whether in-hospital factors were associated with outcome in terms of survival. ⋯ An almost 2-fold difference in survival after OHCA between Stockholm and Göteborg appears to be associated with pre-hospital factors only (predominantly in form of prolonged intervals in Stockholm), rather than with in-hospital factors or patient characteristics.
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After transient global cerebral ischaemia, selectively vulnerable areas of the brain show delayed neuronal degeneration. Recent data have demonstrated potent neuroprotective effects of the application of growth hormones like erythropoietin (EPO) after focal cerebral ischaemia. In order to assess possible effects of the application of EPO on cerebral recovery after cardiac arrest in rats, the vulnerable hippocampal CA-1 sector was investigated. ⋯ Despite the well known neuroprotective properties of EPO in ischaemia induced neuronal degeneration, this study could not reveal any beneficial effects of EPO after global cerebral ischaemia due to cardiac arrest in rats.