Resuscitation
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In their recent guidelines the European Resuscitation Council have recommended the use of Unmanned Aerial systems (UAS) to overcome the notorious shortage of AED. Exploiting the full potential of airborne AED delivery would mandate 24 h UAS operability. However, current systems have not been evaluated for nighttime use. The primary goal of our study was to evaluate the feasibility of night-time AED delivery by UAS. The secondary goal was to obtain and compare operational and safety data of night versus day missions. ⋯ Our results demonstrate the feasibility of UAS supported AED delivery during nighttime. Operational and safety data indicate no major differences between day- and night-time use. Future research should focus on integration of drone technology into the chain of survival.
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Quality of chest compressions (CC) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) often do not meet guideline recommendations for rate and depth. This may be due to the fatiguing nature of physically compressing a patient's chest, meaning that CPR quality reduces over time. ⋯ A reduction in CC depth was observed during two-minutes of continuous CCs while CC rate was not affected. One third of patients received a mean CC depth within guideline range (50 to 60 mm).
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Pulseless electrical activity (PEA) is commonly observed in in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Universally available ECG characteristics such as QRS duration (QRSd) and heart rate (HR) may develop differently in patients who obtain ROSC or not. The aim of this study was to assess prospectively how QRSd and HR as biomarkers predict the immediate outcome of patients with PEA. ⋯ HR and QRSd convey information of the immediateoutcome during resuscitation from PEA. These universally available and promising biomarkers may guide the emergency team in tailoring individual treatment.