Resuscitation
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To describe prodromal symptoms and health care consumption prior to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in patients without previously known ischaemic heart disease (IHD). ⋯ Patients who suffer an OHCA seek health care and present prodromal symptoms significantly more often the week prior to the event than the same week one year earlier.
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Both ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest (VFCA) and asphyxial cardiac arrest (ACA) are frequent causes of CA. However, only isolated reports compared cerebral blood flow (CBF) reperfusion patterns after different types of CA, and even fewer reports used methods that allow serial and regional assessment of CBF. We hypothesized that the reperfusion patterns of CBF will differ between individual types of experimental CA. ⋯ Both insults resulted in delayed hypoperfusion in all regions. Both early hyperperfusion and delayed hypoperfusion may be important therapeutic targets. This study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh IACUC 1008816-1.
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Attentional focus narrows as individuals concentrate on tasks. Missing an event that would otherwise appear obvious is termed a perceptual error. These forms of perceptual failure are well-recognised in psychological literature, but little attention has been paid to them in medicine. Cognitive workload and expertise modulate risk, although how these factors interplay in practice is unclear. This video-based experiment was designed to explore the hypothesis that perceptual errors affect clinicians. ⋯ This study demonstrates, for the first time, that perceptual errors occur during healthcare-relevant scenarios at significant levels. Events such as an oxygen malfunction would meaningfully affect patient outcome and, although expertise conferred some advantages, events were still missed more often than not. Data acquisition is fundamental to good-quality situational awareness. These results suggest perceptual error may be a contributor to adverse events in practice.
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Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) improves out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival. Telephone CPR (TCPR) comprises CPR instruction given by emergency dispatchers to bystanders responding to OHCA and the CPR performed as a result. TCPR instructions improve bystander CPR rates, but the quality of the instructions varies widely. No standardized system exists to critically evaluate the TCPR intervention. ⋯ We developed and demonstrated successful implementation of a simple data collection and reporting system for critical evaluation of the TCPR intervention. A standardized methodology for measuring TCPR is necessary to perform on-going quality improvement, to establish performance standards, and for future research on how to optimize bystander CPR rates and OHCA survival.
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Observational Study
The relationship between chest compression fraction and outcome from ventricular fibrillation arrests in prolonged resuscitations.
Guidelines direct rescuers to minimize CPR interruptions during resuscitation. There is little evidence that evaluates the relationship of increasing CPR fraction among patients with relatively high fractions or prolonged resuscitation. ⋯ Over one-third required 20 min of persistent EMS CPR. The EMS was able to achieve a high hands-on CPR fraction in the context of advanced therapies. Those who required the most prolonged EMS CPR appeared to benefit from greater hands-on CPR fraction.