Ventilation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation with mechanical chest compressions: How often are two insufflations being given during the 3-second ventilation pauses?

Background: Mechanical chest compression devices in 30:2 mode provide 3-second pauses to allow for two insufflations. We aimed to determine how often two insufflations are provided in these ventilation pauses, in order to assess if prehospital providers are able to ventilate out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients successfully during mechanical chest compressions.

Methods: Data from OHCA cases of the regional ambulance service of Utrecht, The Netherlands, were prospectively collected in the UTrecht studygroup for OPtimal registry of cardIAc arrest database (UTOPIA).

Optimizing airway management and ventilation during prehospital advanced life support in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A narrative review.

Airway management and ventilation are essential components of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to achieve oxygen delivery in order to prevent hypoxic injury and increase the chance of survival. Weighing the relative benefits and downsides, the best approach is a staged strategy; start with a focus on high-quality chest compressions and defibrillation, then optimize mask ventilation while preparing for advanced airway management with a supraglottic airway device. Endotracheal intubation can still be indicated, but has the largest downsides of all advanced airway techniques.

Per-Protocol and Pre-Defined population analysis of the LINC study.

Objective: To perform two predefined sub-group analyses within the LINC study and evaluate if the results were supportive of the previous reported intention to treat (ITT) analysis.

Methods: Predefined subgroup analyses from the previously published LINC study were performed. The Per-Protocol population (PPP) included the randomized patients included in the ITT-population but excluding those with violated inclusion or exclusion criteria and those that did not get the actual treatment to which the patient was randomized.

Mechanical chest compressions improved aspects of CPR in the LINC trial.

Aim: We studied resuscitation process metrics in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest enrolled in a randomized trial comparing one protocol designed to best use a mechanical CPR device, with another based on the 2005 European Resuscitation Council guidelines for manual CPR.

Methods: We analyzed clinical data, ECG signals, and transthoracic impedance signals for a subset of the patients in the LUCAS in Cardiac Arrest (LINC) trial, including 124 patients randomized to mechanical and 82 to manual CPR. Chest compression fraction (CCF) was defined as the fraction of time during cardiac arrest that chest compressions were administered.

Fast assessment and management of chest pain without ST-elevation in the pre-hospital gateway: rationale and design.

Background: For chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation in the pre-hospital setting, current clinical guidelines merely offer in-hospital risk stratification and management, as opposed to chest pain patients with ST-segment elevation for whom there is a straightforward pre-hospital strategy for diagnosis, medication regimen and logistics. The FAMOUS TRIAGE study will assess the effects of introducing a pre-hospital triage system that reliably stratifies chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation into 1) patients at high risk for NSTEMI requiring a direct transfer to a PCI-hospital; 2) patients at intermediate risk for a major adverse cardiac event (MACE) who could be evaluated at the nearest non-PCI hospital; and 3) patients at low risk for MACE (benign non-cardiac chest pain) who could have further evaluation at home or in a primary care setting.

Methods: The FAMOUS TRIAGE study will be performed in three phases.

Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation vs conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the LINC randomized trial.

Importance: A strategy using mechanical chest compressions might improve the poor outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but such a strategy has not been tested in large clinical trials.

Objective: To determine whether administering mechanical chest compressions with defibrillation during ongoing compressions (mechanical CPR), compared with manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (manual CPR), according to guidelines, would improve 4-hour survival.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Multicenter randomized clinical trial of 2589 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest conducted between January 2008 and February 2013 in 4 Swedish, 1 British, and 1 Dutch ambulance services and their referring hospitals.

The study protocol for the LINC (LUCAS in cardiac arrest) study: a study comparing conventional adult out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation with a concept with mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation.

Background: The LUCAS™ device delivers mechanical chest compressions that have been shown in experimental studies to improve perfusion pressures to the brain and heart as well as augmenting cerebral blood flow and end tidal CO2, compared with results from standard manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Two randomised pilot studies in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients have not shown improved outcome when compared with manual CPR. There remains evidence from small case series that the device can be potentially beneficial compared with manual chest compressions in specific situations.