Resuscitation
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The effect of cardiopulmonary resuscitation guideline changes on out-of-hospital survival rates and defibrillation efficacy was investigated. The guideline changes were those recommended by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation in 2005. ⋯ This study suggests that in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, the new guidelines have improved survival to hospital but not to discharge. Whilst the guideline changes have resulted in a trend towards decreased shock success rates, ROSC and survival to hospital admission have both increased.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of surface cooling and invasive cooling for rapid induction of mild therapeutic hypothermia in pigs--effectiveness of two different devices.
The effectiveness and safety of non-invasive surface cooling was compared to invasive endovascular cooling in an animal model. ⋯ Surface cooling is a simple method for achieving fast cooling rates. In our animal model, non-invasive cooling was three times faster than rapid endovascular cooling without overshoot.
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The Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) is an emergency medical dispatch (EMD) system that is widely used to prioritize 9-1-1 calls and optimize resource allocation. Calls are assigned an MPDS determinant, which includes a number (1-32) representing chief complaint and priority (Alpha through Echo) representing acuity. ⋯ MPDS was designed to detect cardiac arrest with high sensitivity, leading to a significant degree of mistriage. The number of dispatches for each cardiac arrest may be a useful way to quantify the degree of mistriage and optimize EMS dispatch. This large descriptive study revealed a low NOD-CA in most cardiac arrest MPDS determinants. We demonstrated significant variability in the NOD-CA among non-cardiac arrest MPDS determinants, and few cardiac arrests in non-MPDS dispatch categories.