OBJECTIVE To determine whether paramedic interventions increased the rate of return of spontaneous circulation in the victims of out of hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 276 out of hospital cardiac arrests was made. Data analysed included age, sex, presenting rhythm, ambulance response time, presence of a pulse at any point, interventions performed by the ambulance ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect on cardiac arrests and overall hospital mortality of an intensive care-based medical emergency team. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective before-and-after trial in a tertiary referral hospital. PATIENTS Consecutive patients admitted to hospital during a 4-month "before" period (May-August 1999) (n = 21 090) and a 4-month intervention period (November 2000 -Februa...

Cardiac arrest is a common and lethal medical problem; each year more than half a million people in the United States and Canada suffer cardiac arrest treated by emergency medical personnel or in-hospital providers. Of those who survive to hospital admission or suffer in-hospital arrest, 40-60% die prior to discharge. Neurologic injury is the major source of morbidity and mortality after recove...

AIMS Survival to hospital discharge after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies widely. This study describes short-term survival after OHCA in a region with an extensive care path and a follow-up of 1 year. METHODS Consecutive patients ≥16 years admitted to the emergency department between April 2011 and December 2012 were included. In July 2014 a follow-up took place. Socio-demographi...

CLINICAL QUESTION Does epinephrine (adrenaline) used in the context of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest improve outcomes? ARTICLE CHOSEN Jacobs IG, Finn JC, Jelinek GA, et al. Effect of adrenaline on survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Resuscitation 2011;82:1138-43. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of epinephrine in out-of-hospital ...

AIM A growing body of evidence suggests that variability in post-cardiac arrest care contributes to differential outcomes of patients with initial return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest. We examined hospital-level variation in mortality of patients admitted to United States intensive care units (ICUs) with a diagnosis of cardiac arrest. METHODS Patients with a primary ICU admi...

According with the last updated guidelines on resuscitation, the underlying cause of cardiac arrest (CA) should be identified, treated and, if possible, reversed with different strategies but a common target: to increase long-term survival with good neurologic recovery. At the same time, some countries have implemented protocols for donation after considering the irreversibility of cardiac arre...

BACKGROUND For patients with in-hospital cardiac arrests attributable to nonshockable rhythms, delays in epinephrine administration beyond 5 minutes is associated with worse survival. However, the extent of hospital variation in delayed epinephrine administration and its effect on hospital-level outcomes is unknown. METHODS Within Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation, we identified 103 932 a...