Resuscitation
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Validation for a scoring system of the ALS cardiac arrest simulation test (CASTest).
The cardiac arrest simulation test (CASTest) assesses resuscitation knowledge and skills during a simulated cardiac arrest. The aim of this study is to validate an alternative scoring system for measuring individual candidate performance during research involving the CASTest. ⋯ This new simple scoring system can be used to better characterise performance on the ALS course CASTest than the current binary pass-fail outcome.
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Comparative Study
Incidence of iatrogenic dyscarbia during mild therapeutic hypothermia after successful resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
To investigate the incidence of iatrogenic dyscarbia in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with induced mild hypothermia. We performed a retrospective cohort study of the ventilatory management based on blood gas analyses of patients resuscitated from prehospital cardiac arrest. In the pilot phase, we assessed the ventilatory management in the patients treated in one university hospital during a 4-year study period. ⋯ The incidence of hypo- or hyper-carbia (dyscarbia) was high (45%). This may predispose for serious derangements in the cerebral perfusion of the resuscitated patient. These results call for vigilance in adjustment of the ventilatory management to meet the needs of the patients treated with mild hypothermia.
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Comparative Study
A national survey of prevalence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training and knowledge of the emergency number in Ireland.
The aim of this survey was to establish prevalence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training within the last 5 years and reasons preventing training and initiation of CPR in Ireland as well as awareness of the emergency numbers. ⋯ Previous Irish and American population targets for CPR training have been surpassed in Ireland in 2008. New internationally agreed targets are now required. Meanwhile older people and those in lower socio-economic groups should be targeted for training. Awareness of at least one emergency number is very high in Ireland. Some geographical variation was found and this should be studied further.
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Recent reports consistently point to a substantial decline in the incidence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) as the initial rhythm observed by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) responders and a complementary increase in pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and asystole. Historically, efforts at improving survival have focused primarily on patients found in VF. ⋯ However, the "yield" of survivors comes largely from the non-shocked patients. Therefore, it is critical that we start evaluating treatments specifically for the PEA and asystole groups.