Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survivorship: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Cardiac arrest systems of care are successfully coordinating community, emergency medical services, and hospital efforts to improve the process of care for patients who have had a cardiac arrest. As a result, the number of people surviving sudden cardiac arrest is increasing. However, physical, cognitive, and emotional effects of surviving cardiac arrest may linger for months or years.

An Assessment of Emergency Department Post-Cardiac Arrest Care Variation in Michigan.

Implementation of postarrest care by individual physicians and systems has been slow. Deadoption, or discontinuation of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) treatment targets, after recent prospective study results has not been well reported. This study assesses practices in the early stages of postarrest care across emergency departments (EDs) in Michigan.

An "Intention-Focused" paradigm for improving bystander CPR performance.

Despite public education campaigns and a chest compression-only initiative, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is provided in approximately 30-40% of out of hospital cardiac arrests in the United States. Bystander CPR rates may not improve without addressing factors influencing bystanders' probability of performing CPR. We propose an "intention-focused" model for the bystander CPR performance utilizing validated behavioral theory.

External validation of termination of resuscitation guidelines in the setting of intra-arrest cold saline, mechanical CPR, and comprehensive post resuscitation care.

Background: The development of advanced life support (ALS) termination of resuscitation (TOR) guidelines for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) seeks to improve the efficiency of scarce pre-hospital resources. However, as pre-hospital treatment for OHCA evolves and survival improves, these TOR guidelines must be reevaluated in the contemporary context of emergency medical services (EMS) providing access to advanced resuscitation care.

Methods: Retrospective review of all adult (>18 years old), non-traumatic, OHCA patients (defined as patients with absence of pulse who received either CPR and/or defibrillation) treated by EMS in Richmond, VA, from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010.

An observational study of patient selection criteria for post-cardiac arrest therapeutic hypothermia.

Background: To date, there is no comprehensive assessment of how therapeutic hypothermia and post-arrest care are being implemented clinically. At this stage in the translation of post-arrest science to clinical practice, this analysis is overdue. This study examines the first step of post-arrest care--the selection of patients for TH and post-arrest care.

Hospital-based strategies contributing to percutaneous coronary intervention time reduction in the patient with ST-segment elevation myocardiaI infarction: a review of the "system-of-care" approach.

A myriad of hospital-wide initiatives have been implemented with the goal of decreasing door-to-balloon time. Much of the evidence behind the common strategies used is unknown; multiple strategies have been suggested in the reduction to the use of this important time-sensitive intervention. Among 8 primary strategies, 2 have substantial evidence to support their implementation in the attempt to reduce door-to-balloon time in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), including emergency physician activation of the cardiac catheterization laboratory and prehospital activation of the STEMI alert process.

The impact of prehospital activation of the cardiac catheterization team on time to treatment for patients presenting with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the accuracy of emergency medical services (EMS) activation of the cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and its impact on treatment intervals from dispatch to reperfusion.

Methods: We conducted a before-and-after cohort study of patients presenting via EMS with prehospital electrocardiogram findings consistent with STEMI. Before August 20, 2007, percutaneous coronary intervention was initiated after patient arrival.