Resuscitation
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Infectious complications frequently occur in intensive care unit patients admitted after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. There is debate on the effects of temperature management on the incidence of infections, as well as on the efficacy and choice of antibiotic prophylaxis. In this substudy of the targeted temperature management (TTM) trial, we describe the microbiological profile of infectious complications in patients with cardiac arrest and examined the impact of TTM at 33 °C compared to TTM at 36 °C. Furthermore we aimed to determine the association between antibiotic prophylaxis and the incidence of infections. ⋯ Gram-negative pathogens are the most common causes of nosocomial infections following cardiac arrest. TTM does not impact the microbiological profile. It remains unclear whether patients in ICUs using antibiotic prophylaxis have a reduced risk of pneumonia and bacteremia that is unrelated to center effects.
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We examined whether outcomes of paediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are associated with a hospital characteristic defined by the annual number of invasive mechanical ventilation cases, suggesting hospitals' experience in caring for severely ill paediatric patients. ⋯ Japanese hospitals with higher experience in caring for severely ill paediatric patients showed lower mortality for paediatric OHCA. This fact should be considered by the Emergency Medical Systems when deciding transport strategy.
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Many scores derived from Early Warning Scores have been developed to detect patients at risk of poor outcome. Few of these scores incorporate the oxygen flow rate while this is a major marker in patients with respiratory complaint. We developed and evaluated a new automatable monitoring tool (Early Warning Score O2: EWS.O2) that incorporates cardio-respiratory parameters (Respiratory rate, Heart rate, SpO2, and FiO2 derived from oxygen flow rate), aiming to achieve early detection of poor outcome among patients with dyspnea. ⋯ This new ScoreO2 is equivalent or superior to common early warning scores and index to predict poor outcome at first medical contact. This score may be automatically and continuously recorded with new closed-loop devices to titrate oxygen flow. Further prospective studies will allow to verify its accuracy at multiple time points of the patient's journey.
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Editorial Comment
Survival and neurological outcome: search for a low-hanging fruit.
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Regional variation in incidence and survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) may be caused by many factors including differences in definitions and reporting. We examined regional differences in Denmark. ⋯ Differences in incidence and 30-day survival after OHCA were observed between the five regions of Denmark. Comparisons of survival should not only be based on survival percentages, but also on number of survivors of the background population as inclusion bias can influence survival outcomes.