Uninterrupted CPR is Better Than Interrupted

This is from King County, which has been publishing retrospective pre- and post- intervention outcomes related to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for several years now.  This article focuses on the AHA guidelines for PEA and asystole, and the changes that were made in 2004 and 2005.  Those changes, if you recall, involve fewer pauses for pulse and rhythm checks and decreasing the number of ventilations.


Good news!  You were 1.5 times more likely to survive neurologically intact to hospital discharge after the introduction of the new guidelines.  Bad news: good neurological outcome was still only 5.1%, up from 3.4%.  So, yes, this is another piece of evidence supporting the “uninterrupted, high-quality CPR” concept, but perhaps the other important question that need be asked at the same time is:  how can we reduce the unnecessary resource expenditure associated with attempted resuscitation for the 95% that doesn’t benefit?


“Impact of Changes in Resuscitation Practice on Survival and Neurological Outcome After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Resulting From Nonshockable Arrhythmias”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22474256