Resuscitation
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Current guidelines recommend epinephrine every 3-5min during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. For adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA), longer dosing intervals are associated with improved survival to discharge. This study investigates whether longer epinephrine dosing intervals were associated with improved survival to discharge during pediatric IHCA. ⋯ Longer average dosing intervals than currently recommended for epinephrine administration during pediatric IHCA were associated with improved survival to hospital discharge.
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In sick children who are unable to be weighed estimation of weight is often required, but the routinely used equations lack accuracy and precision. This study aimed to develop a novel equation (Children's European Estimator of Weight-CEEW) using measurements of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and other predictors in multinational groups of sick children in Europe. ⋯ The CEEW equations performed substantially better than other routinely used equations for weight estimation. An electronic application for mobile use is presented.
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Respective proportions of final etiologies are disparate in cohorts of cardiac arrest patients, depending on examined population and diagnostic algorithms. In particular, prevalence and characteristics of sudden unexplained death syndrome (SUDS) are debated. We aimed at describing etiologies in a large cohort of aborted out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients, in order to assess prevalence and outcome of SUDS. ⋯ We observed that ischemic heart disease was by far the most common cause of cardiac arrest, while primary electrical diseases were much less frequent. SUDS accounted for a very small proportion of patients who suffered an aborted OHCA.
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Clear and efficient communication between emergency caller and call-taker is crucial to timely ambulance dispatch. We aimed to explore the impact of linguistic variation in the delivery of the prompt "okay, tell me exactly what happened" on the way callers describe the emergency in the Medical Priority Dispatch System®. ⋯ These results suggest that linguistic variations in the way the scripted sentences of a protocol are delivered can have an impact on the efficiency with which call-takers process emergency calls. A better understanding of interactional dynamics between caller and call-taker may translate into improvements of dispatch performance.