Treating sudden cardiac arrest in a school setting

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart's electrical system fires very rapidly and in an uncoordinated manner, rendering the heart incapable of pumping blood through the circulatory system. The heart begins to tremble uncontrollably, like a quivering bowl of jelly. The victim becomes unconscious, stops breathing, and typically has no pulse or signs of circulation. Unless this condition is reversed, death follows in a matter of minutes. Defibrillation ("shocking a patient") is the only effective means of re-setting the heart's normal electrical impulses.     

Out-of-hospital resuscitation in Estonia: a bystander-witnessed sudden cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the results of the first epidemiological study on out-of-hospital resuscitation in Estonia. METHODS: A prospective cohort study of 2108 consecutive standardized reports on out-of-hospital resuscitation attempts from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2002 was conducted according to the Utstein style. RESULTS: In all, 67.3% (1419/2108) of the cardiac arrests were of presumed cardiac aetiology and 60.2% (854/1419) of them were bystander-witnessed. Of these, the 28% bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated, and the first rhythm was recorded as ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia in 40% of the cases. In the subgroup of patients with bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest of cardiac origin, 10.7% (91/854) were discharged alive in good cerebral performance categories and 7.7% were alive at the 1-year follow-up. The chances of survival increased if the median response time interval was <6 min, cardiac arrest occurred in a public place, patients received bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and had an initial rhythm of ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. The discharge rate was 24% (82/343) in the subgroup of patients who had bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest of cardiac origin and an initial rhythm of ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. In this subgroup, the survival rate was 42.6% (40/94) in Tartu urban area, 16.9% (22/130) in Tallinn urban area and 16.8% (20/119) in other regions of Estonia (mostly urban and suburban areas). CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that despite the progress in the management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Estonia, only one centre (Tartu) achieves a better survival rate. Further improvements are needed to raise the quality of the Estonian emergency medical services system, especially in rural areas.     

Partners' ambivalence towards cardiac arrest and hypothermia treatment: a qualitative study

Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of partners of patients who had cardiac arrest and subsequent hypothermia treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). Method: Nine in-depth interviews were conducted 5 months to 1 year after hospitalization. The participants were partners of patients who had survived cardiac arrest and had undergone hypothermia treatment without serious brain damage. All the interviews were analysed using Giorgi's phenomenological method. Findings: Six main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) terrified by witnessing the cardiac arrest; (2) ambivalence towards the ICU room and the cold body; (3) need for honest and realistic information; (4) anticipating the awakening; (5) social network as support and burden; and (6) the frightening homecoming. Conclusion: The essential structure of the partners' experiences of loved ones' cardiac arrest and hypothermia treatment was characterized by ambivalence; they experienced both fear and relief. There may be a relationship between experiences before entering the ICU and reactions during hypothermia treatment and afterwards. Some partners experienced a feeling of guilt after the resuscitation event, and especially during the awakening phase. After discharge, the partners described feeling anxiety. Relevance to clinical practice: Nurses play a pivotal role in providing partners with information and in nurturing hope and feelings of security. Partners need to fully understand the reason for hypothermia treatment to enable them to accept the cold body as part of a life-saving process. We recommend follow-up after discharge. This may increase the partners' sense of security and control.     

Measuring survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest: the elusive definition

BACKGROUND: Measuring survival from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOH-CA) is often used as a benchmark of the quality of a community's emergency medical service (EMS) system. The definition of OOH-CA survival rates depends both upon the numerator (surviving cases) and the denominator (all cases). PURPOSE: The purpose of the public access defibrillation (PAD) trial was to measure the impact on survival of adding an automated external defibrillator (AED) to a volunteer response system trained in CPR. This paper reports the definition of OOH-CA developed by the PAD trial investigators, and it evaluates alternative statistical methods used to assess differences in reported "survival." METHODS: Case surveillance was limited to the prospectively determined geographic boundaries of the participating trial units. The numerator in calculating a survival rate should include only those patients who survived an event but who otherwise would have died except for the application of some facet of emergency medical care-in this trial a defibrillatory shock. Among denominators considered were: total population of the study unit, all deaths within the study unit, and documented ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrests. The PAD classification focused upon cases that might have benefited from the early use of an AED, in addition to the likely benefit from early recognition of OOH-CA, early access of EMS, and early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Results of this classification system were used to evaluate the impact of the PAD definition on the distribution of cardiac arrest case types between CPR only and CPR + AED units. RESULTS: Potential OOH-CA episodes were classified into one of four groups: definite, probable, uncertain, or not an OOH-CA. About half of cardiac arrests in the PAD units were judged to be definite OOH-CA events and therefore potentially treatable with an AED. However, events that occurred in CPR-only units were less likely to be classified as definite or probable OOH-CA events than those in CPR + AED units (43% versus 55%, odds ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.57-1.07). The study retained sufficient power to permit a statistical analysis of the alternative hypothesis that the CPR + AED method results in twice as many survivors as a CPR-only approach. The result is critically dependent on the denominator used for calculating survival rates; but the analysis does not require a denominator as the numerators will have identical Poisson distributions (counts for rare events) under the null hypothesis since randomization distributes the risk of cardiac arrest evenly between the two arms. CONCLUSION: Reported OOH-CA rates and survival rates vary widely, depending upon the definitions applied to events. Rigorous assessment of treatments applied to improve survival can be obscured by inappropriate definitions. Large-scale randomized interventions designed to improve survival from OOH-CA can be evaluated based upon the absolute numbers of patients surviving, rather than a change in the proportion surviving.     

院内突发心脏骤停的救治策略探讨

心脏骤停（CA）是临床工作中最严重,最紧急的危重症之一。院内心跳骤停发生并不少见,一旦发生患者死亡,患者家属难以接受,极易引起医疗纠纷。本文对我院2010-10-2013-02期间发生在院内心跳骤停的39例患者按照《2010年美国心脏协会心肺复苏与心血管急救指南》操作流程,进行抢救治疗,取得了较好的效果。现将救治中体会总结如下。     

Psychosocial nursing therapy following sudden cardiac arrest: impact on two-year survival

BACKGROUND: Although psychosocial therapy has been shown to reduce mortality after myocardial infarction, it is unknown whether the benefits of psychosocial therapy on mortality reduction extend to out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest, a main cause of cardiovascular mortality. OBJECTIVE: Describe efficacy of psychosocial therapy on two-year cardiovascular mortality in sudden cardiac arrest survivors. METHOD: Survivors of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation or asystole (N = 129), documented by electrocardiograms from registries of a citywide Medic One unit and two countywide emergency units, were randomized into a two group, experimental, longitudinal design. The intervention consisted of 11 individual sessions, implementing three components: physiologic relaxation with biofeedback training focused on altering autonomic tone; cognitive behavioral therapy aimed at self-management and coping strategies for depression, anxiety, and anger; and cardiovascular health education. The primary outcome measure was cardiovascular mortality. RESULTS: Risk of cardiovascular death was significantly reduced 86% by psychosocial therapy, p = .03. Six of the seven cardiovascular deaths in the control group were caused by ventricular arrhythmias. The cardiovascular death in the therapy group was due to stroke. Controlling for depression, previous myocardial infarction, low ejection fraction, decreased heart rate variability, and ventricular ectopic beats had little impact on estimated treatment effect. The risk of all-cause mortality was reduced by 62% in the therapy group, p = .13. There were a total of three deaths in the therapy group and eight deaths in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial therapy significantly reduced the risk of cardiovascular death in sudden cardiac arrest survivors.     

1例术中使用骨水泥致心跳骤停患者的监护

总结了1例术中使用骨水泥致心跳骤停患者的监护经验,特别注意从意识、血流动力学、呼吸功能等3个方面对该患者进行重点监测。通过适当的护理措施,患者预后良好,治愈出院。认为完善的监护技术是成功抢救本患者的重要保证。     

心源性心脏骤停心肺复苏成功的分析

目的分析影响心源性心脏骤停患者心肺复苏成功的临床因素。方法选择该院收治的心源性心脏骤停患者共58例,根据复苏成功与否分成心肺复苏成功组(成功组)22例和心肺复苏失败组(失败组)36例。分析两组患者的临床资料,探讨与心肺复苏成功的相关因素。结果两组患者性别比和发病种类比较,差异无统计学意义(P0.05);成功组患者的年龄和入院时间明显低于失败组,院前给予抢救的比例明显高于失败组,差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。成功组患者的心脏停搏时间、抢救时间、心肺复苏循环平均次数、肾上腺素剂量和电除颤次数明显低于失败组,应用辅助机械通气的比例明显高于失败组,差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论心肺复苏成功的因素可能与发病年龄、入院时间、院前给予抢救的比例、心脏停搏时间、抢救时间、心肺复苏循环次数、肾上腺素剂量、平均电除颤次数和应用辅助机械通气有关。     

Emergency department factors associated with survival after sudden cardiac arrest

Background

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death in the US. Recent innovations in post-arrest care have been demonstrated to increase survival. However, little is known about the impact of emergency department (ED) and hospital characteristics on survival to hospital admission and ultimate outcome.

Objective

We sought to describe the incidence of SCA presenting to the ED and to identify ED and hospital characteristics associated with survival to hospital admission.

Methods

We identified patients with diagnoses of atraumatic cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation (ICD-9 427.5 or 427.41) in the 2007 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), a nationally representative estimate of all ED admissions in the United States. We defined SCA as cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital or ED settings. We used the NEDS sample design to generate nationally representative estimates of the incidence of SCA that presents to EDs. We performed unadjusted and adjusted analyses to examine the relation between patient, ED, and hospital characteristics and outcome using logistic regression. Our primary outcome was survival to hospital admission. Survival to hospital discharge was a secondary outcome. Data are presented as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

Of the 966 hospitals in the NEDS, 933 (96.6%) reported at least one SCA and were included in the analysis. We identified 38,593 cases of cardiac arrest representing an estimated 174,982 cases nationally. Overall ED SCA survival to hospital admission was 26.2% and survival to discharge was 15.7%. Greater survival to admission was seen in teaching hospitals (OR 1.3 95% CI 1.1–1.5, p = 0.001), hospitals with ≥20,000 annual ED visits (OR 1.3 95% CI 1.1–1.6, p = 0.003), and hospitals with percutaneous coronary intervention capability (OR 1.6 95% CI 1.4–1.8, p < 0.001). Higher SCA volume (>40 annually) was associated with lower survival overall (OR 0.7 95% 0.6–0.9, p = 0.010), but not when transferred patients were excluded from the analysis (OR 0.8 95% CI 0.6–1.1, p = 0.116).

Conclusions

An estimated 175,000 cases of SCA present to or occur in US EDs each year. Percutaneous coronary intervention capability, ED volume, and teaching status were associated with higher survival to hospital admission. Emergency departments with higher annual SCA volume had lower survival rates, possibly because they transfer fewer patients. An improved understanding of the contribution of ED care to survival following SCA may be useful in advancing our understanding of how best to organize a system of care to ensure optimal outcomes for patients with SCA.     

Nurse case managers' perceptions of advocacy: a phenomenological inquiry

Case managers are at the forefront of managed care as they seek creative ways to advocate for the best interests of patients, while adhering to the increasingly stringent utilization guidelines and cost constraints of managed care. Nurse care managers are in the ideal position to act as effective advocates because they have the skills needed to "work the system" both within and outside the hospital to ensure that the patient's needs are met.     

Patients' perceptions of seclusion: a qualitative investigation

Twelve patients receiving acute in-patient psychiatric care in Queensland, Australia, participated in semi-structured interviews to elicit their perceptions of seclusion. All respondents had experienced time in seclusion within the 7 days prior to interview. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using content analysis. Five major themes emerged: use of seclusion, emotional impact, sensory deprivation, maintaining control and staff-patient interaction. The prevailing negativity towards seclusion underscores the need for ongoing critical review of its use. In particular, the relationship between patient responses to seclusion and the circumstances in which seclusion takes place requires greater consideration. Interventions such as providing information to patients about seclusion, increased interaction with patients during seclusion, attention to privacy and effective debriefing following seclusion may help to reduce the emotional impact of the practice.