Resuscitation
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Some unconscious patients are found to be in primary respiratory arrest (PRA) by emergency medical technicians (EMTs). In contrast to citizens, EMTs manage PRA with artificial ventilation but not with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of PRA prior to EMT arrival and compare these data with those of a PRA-related group: patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). ⋯ We identified a subgroup of PRAs with unexpectedly poor outcomes. The BLS guidelines for healthcare providers including EMTs should be re-evaluated by a large prospective study.
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Patients with in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest (IHCA) precipitated by respiratory insufficiency often exhibit bradycardia before the arrest. We hypothesized that bradycardia frequently occurs in the 10 min preceding IHCA and is associated with poor outcomes when IHCA occurs outside the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ Antecedent bradycardia occurred frequently and was associated with death prior to hospital discharge in non-ICU hospitalized adults on telemetry monitoring who developed IHCA.
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The objective of this study was to develop and validate a new age-based formula for estimating body weights of Korean children. ⋯ We developed and validated a simple formula to estimate body weight from the age of Korean children and found that this new formula was more accurate than other weight estimating methods. However, care should be taken when applying this formula to older children because of a large standard deviation of estimated weight.
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To estimate the prognostic value of point-of-care measurement of biomarkers related to dyspnea in patients receiving a medical emergency team (MET) review. ⋯ Although, BNP and D-dimer are poor discriminants of ICU admission and hospital mortality, normal BNP and D-dimer levels practically exclude subsequent need for ICU admission and hospital mortality.
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We aimed to describe characteristics associated with rescue from drowning as reported by the Swedish Fire and Rescue Services (SFARS) and their association with survival from the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) registry. ⋯ In half of more than 7000 drowning-related calls to the SFARS during 15 years of practice, water rescue was needed. In all treated OHCA cases, the majority were found at the surface. Only in a small percentage did rescue diving take place. In these cases, survival did not appear to be poorer than in non-diving cases.