Resuscitation
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To investigate the distance covered by lay first responders (LFR) alerted for an out-of- hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), evaluate the time elapsed between mission acceptance and arrival at the OHCA site, as well as the distance between the LFRs to the closest automatic external defibrillator (AED). ⋯ The dispatch of LFRs directly to the OHCA site instead of first retrieving the AED, significantly decreases the time to CPR initiation. More studies are needed to assess the prognostic implications on survival and neurological outcome.
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After out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) associated with obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), the risk of recurrence during the early period is unclear and the indication for anti-arrhythmic treatment is debated. We assessed the incidence and predisposing factors for severe cardiac arrhythmias in this population. ⋯ An early recurrence of major arrhythmia was observed in more than 10% of post-cardiac arrest patients. These events happened mostly within the first 24 h. The interest of prophylactic anti-arrhythmic treatment remains to be evaluated in this population.
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Editorial Comment
More evidence that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is preventable.
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Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) can be used to categorise neurological outcome after cardiac arrest. There is no consensus on what information sources can be used to derive the CPC. This study describes the information sources used by hospitals participating in the UK National Cardiac Arrest Audit (NCAA) and their impact on the CPC reported for individuals surviving an in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). ⋯ In the UK IHCA audit, the most commonly used information source for CPC assessment is case notes. Most survivors of IHCA are reported as having a CPC score of 1 or a good outcome (CPC scores 1 or 2).
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Although cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training is recommended in schools, there are few attempts to train all students at universities and no reports showing actual resuscitation actions at emergency settings after the training. We surveyed how many students encountered a collapsed person, whether they performed any resuscitation actions, and any reasons why they could not do any resuscitation actions. ⋯ The incidence rate of encountering OHCA patients was 1.1 per 100 person-years and half of them who encountered a collapsed person performed at least one resuscitation action. Hands-on mass training would encourage university students to perform any resuscitation actions on the emergency scene.