Since development of the Utstein style recommendations for the uniform reporting of cardiac arrest, increasing numbers of national and regional out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) registries have ...been established worldwide. The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) created the Research and Registries Working Group and aimed to systematically report data collected from these registries.
We conducted two surveys of voluntarily participating national and regional registries. The first survey aimed to identify which core elements of the current Utstein style for OHCA were collected by each registry. The second survey collected descriptive summary data from each registry. We chose the data collected for the second survey based on the availability of core elements identified by the first survey.
Seven national and four regional registries were included in the first survey and nine national and seven regional registries in the second survey. The estimated annual incidence of emergency medical services (EMS)-treated OHCA was 30.0–97.1 individuals per 100,000 population. The combined data showed the median age varied from 64 to 79 years and more than half were male in all 16 registries. The provision of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and bystander automated external defibrillator (AED) use was 19.1–79.0% in all registries and 2.0–37.4% among 11 registries, respectively. Survival to hospital discharge or 30-day survival after EMS-treated OHCA was 3.1–20.4% across all registries. Favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge or 30 days after EMS-treated OHCA was 2.8–18.2%. Survival to hospital discharge or 30-day survival after bystander-witnessed shockable OHCA ranged from 11.7% to 47.4% and favorable neurological outcome from 9.9% to 33.3%.
This report from ILCOR describes data on systems of care and outcomes following OHCA from nine national and seven regional registries across the world. We found variation in reported survival outcomes and other core elements of the current Utstein style recommendations for OHCA across nations and regions.
Abstract Aim We compared the time to initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by lay responders and/or first responders alerted either via Short Message Service (SMS) or by using a mobile ...application-based alert system (APP). Methods The Ticino Registry of Cardiac Arrest collects all data about out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) occurring in the Canton of Ticino. At the time of a bystander’s call, the EMS dispatcher sends one ambulance and alerts the first-responders network made up of police officers or fire brigade equipped with an automatic external defibrillator, the so called “traditional” first responders, and − if the scene was considered safe − lay responders as well. We evaluated the time from call to arrival of traditional first responders and/or lay responders when alerted either via SMS or the new developed mobile APP. Results Over the study period 593 OHCAs have occurred. Notification to the first responders network was sent via SMS in 198 cases and via mobile APP in 134 cases. Median time to first responder/lay responder arrival on scene was significantly reduced by the APP-based system (3.5 2.8-5.2) compared to the SMS-based system (5.6 4.2-8.5 min, p 0.0001). The proportion of lay responders arriving first on the scene significantly increased (70% vs. 15%, p<0.01) with the APP. Earlier arrival of a first responder or of a lay responder determined a higher survival rate. Conclusions The mobile APP system is highly efficient in the recruitment of first responders, significantly reducing the time to the initiation of CPR thus increasing survival rates.
Aims To determine the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) rates and occurrences at municipality level through a novel statistical model accounting for temporal and spatial heterogeneity, space-time ...interactions and demographic features. We also aimed to predict OHCAs rates and number at municipality level for the upcoming years estimating the related resources requirement. Methods All the consecutive OHCAs of presumed cardiac origin occurred from 2005 until 2018 in Canton Ticino region were included. We implemented an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation statistical method for estimation and prediction of municipality OHCA rates, number of events and related uncertainties, using age and sex municipality compositions. Comparisons between predicted and real OHCA maps validated our model, whilst comparisons between estimated OHCA rates in different yeas and municipalities identified significantly different OHCA rates over space and time. Longer-time predicted OHCA maps provided Bayesian predictions of OHCA coverages in varying stressful conditions. Results 2344 OHCAs were analyzed. OHCA incidence either progressively reduced or continuously increased over time in 6.8% of municipalities despite an overall stable spatio-temporal distribution of OHCAs. The predicted number of OHCAs accounts for 89% (2017) and 90% (2018) of the yearly variability of observed OHCAs with prediction error less than or equal to1OHCA for each year in most municipalities. An increase in OHCAs number with a decline in the Automatic External Defibrillator availability per OHCA at region was estimated. Conclusions Our method enables prediction of OHCA risk at municipality level with high accuracy, providing a novel approach to estimate resource allocation and anticipate gaps in demand in upcoming years.
Many countries reported an increase of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, all these data refer to regional settings and national data are ...still missing. We aimed to assess the OHCA incidence and population mortality during COVID-19 pandemic in whole Switzerland and in the different regions (Cantons) according to the infection rate.
We considered OHCAs and deaths which occurred in Switzerland after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 (February 25th) and for the subsequent 65 days and in the same period in 2019. We also compared Cantons with high versus low COVID-19 incidence.
A 2.4% reduction in OHCA cases was observed in Switzerland. The reduction was particularly high (−21.4%) in high-incidence COVID-19 cantons, whilst OHCAs increased by 7.7% in low-incidence COVID-19 cantons. Mortality increased by 8.6% in the entire nation: a 27.8% increase in high-incidence cantons and a slight decrease (−0.7%) in low-incidence cantons was observed. The OHCA occurred more frequently at home, CPR and AED use by bystander were less frequent during the pandemic. Conversely, the OHCAs percentage in which a first responder was present, initiated the CPR and used an AED, increased. The outcome of patients in COVID-19 high-incidence cantons was worse compared to low-incidence cantons.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland mortality increased in Cantons with high-incidence of infection, whilst not in the low-incidence ones. OHCA occurrence followed an opposite trend showing how variables related to the health-system and EMS organization deeply influence OHCA occurrence during a pandemic.
Over the past decade Smartphone-based activation (SBA) of Community First Responders (CFR) to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) has gained much attention and popularity throughout Europe. ...Various programmes have been established, and interestingly there are considerable differences in technology, responder spectrum and the degree of integration into the prehospital emergency services. It is unclear whether these dissimilarities affect outcome. This paper reviews the current state in five European countries, reveals similarities and controversies, and presents consensus statements generated in an international conference with the intention to support public decision making on future strategies for SBA of CFR.
In a consensus conference a three-step approach was used: (i) presentation of current research from five European countries; (ii) workshops discussing evidence amongst the audience to generate consensus statements; (iii) anonymous real-time voting applying the modified RAND-UCLA Appropriateness method to adopt or reject the statements. The consensus panel aimed to represent all stakeholders involved in this topic.
While 21 of 25 generated statements gained approval, consensus was only found for 5 of them. One statement was rejected but without consensus. Members of the consensus conference confirmed that CFR save lives. They further acknowledged the crucial role of emergency medical control centres and called for nationwide strategies.
Members of the consensus conference acknowledged that smartphone-based activation of CFR to OHCA saves lives. The statements generated by the consensus conference may assist the public, healthcare services and governments to utilise these systems to their full potential, and direct the research community towards fields that still need to be addressed.
Background Once the return of spontaneous circulation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is achieved, a 12-lead ECG is strongly recommended to identify candidates for urgent coronary angiography. ...ECG has no apparent role in mortality risk stratification. We aimed to assess whether ECG features could be associated with 30-day survival in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Methods and Results All the post-return of spontaneous circulation ECGs from January 2015 to December 2018 in 3 European centers (Pavia, Lugano, and Vienna) were collected. Prehospital data were collected according to the Utstein style. A total of 370 ECGs were collected: 287 men (77.6%) with a median age of 62 years (interquartile range, 53-70 years). After correction for the return of spontaneous circulation-to-ECG time, age >62 years (hazard ratio HR, 1.78 95% CI, 1.21-2.61;
=0.003), female sex (HR, 1.5 95% CI, 1.05-2.13;
=0.025), QRS wider than 120 ms (HR, 1.64 95% CI, 1.43-1.87;
<0.001), the presence of a Brugada pattern (HR, 1.49 95% CI, 1.39-1.59;
<0.001), and the presence of ST-segment elevation in >1 segment (HR, 1.75 95% CI, 1.59-1.93;
<0.001) were independently associated with 30-day mortality. A score ranging from 0 to 26 was created, and by dividing the population into 3 tertiles, 3 classes of risk were found with significantly different survival rate at 30 days (score 0-4, 73%; score 5-7, 66%; score 8-26, 45%). Conclusions The post-return of spontaneous circulation ECG can identify patients who are at high risk of mortality after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest earlier than other forms of prognostication. This provides important risk stratification possibilities in postcardiac arrest care that could help to direct treatments and improve outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) has produced these Systems Saving Lives guidelines, which are based on the 2020 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Science with ...Treatment Recommendations. The topics covered include chain of survival, measuring performance of resuscitation, social media and smartphones apps for engaging community, European Restart a Heart Day, World Restart a Heart, KIDS SAVE LIVES campaign, lower-resource setting, European Resuscitation Academy and Global Resuscitation Alliance, early warning scores, rapid response systems, and medical emergency team, cardiac arrest centres and role of dispatcher.
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