Results of pre-hospital cardiac resuscitation in the Reykjavik area 2004-2007

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Brynjolfur Arni MogensenBrynjolfur Mogensen

Abstract

In the Reykjavik area, a physician staffed ambulance -responded to cardiac arrests from 1982-2007. The aim of this study was to assess the outcome of attempted pre-hospital cardiac resuscitations in the period from 2004-2007 and compare to previous studies. All cases of attempted prehospital resuscitations in cardiac arrests of presumed cardiac etiology. Data was gathered according to the Utstein template. Of a total of 289 cases in cardiac arrest, resuscitation was attempted in 279 and 200 of those were presumed to have a cardiac etiology. Men were 76% of the patients and the average age was 67.7 years. Average response time was 6.3 min. One hundred and seven (54%) survived to hospital admission and 50 (25%) survived to discharge compared to 16-19% in previous studies (p=0.16). The presenting rhythm was ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT) in 50% of the cases, 30% was in asystole and 20% in pulseless electrical activity (PEA). Of those admitted to intensive care unit/ department and had ventricular fibrillation on the first rhythm strip 70% were discharged during 2004-2007 compared to 49% during 1999-2002 (p=0.01). Bystander CPR was provided in 62% of witnessed cases compared to 54% in a previous study (p=0...Continue Reading

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