Factors associated with initiation of medical advanced cardiac life support after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Background: Termination of resuscitation rule permits to stop futile resuscitative efforts by paramedics. In a different setting, the decision to withhold resuscitation by emergency physician could be based on different factors. We aimed to identify the factors associated with the initiation of a medical ACLS in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.

Methods: We prospectively collected the characteristics of all out-of hospital cardiac arrest patients occurring in a French district between March 2010 and December 2013 and managed by the emergency medical system. We analyzed the factors associated with the initiation of medical ACLS.

Results: Medical ACLS was initiated in 69 % of the 2690 patients included in the register. ACLS patients were younger (69 years [55-80] vs. 84 years [77-90]) and more frequently men. A higher percentage of witnessed cardiac arrest and BLS were observed. Duration of no-flow was shorter in the ACLS patients, whereas BLS duration was longer. A higher proportion of shockable rhythm and application of AED were found in this group. Mains factors associated with the initiation of medical ACLS were a suspected cardiac cause (1.73 [1.30-2.30]) and use of an automated external defibrillator (1.59 [1.18-2.16]), whereas factors associated with no medical ACLS were higher age (0.93 [0.92-0.94]), absence of BLS (0.62 [0.52-0.73]), asystole (0.31 [0.18-0.51]) and location in nursing home (0.23 [0.11-0.51]).

Conclusions: The medical decision to not initiate ACLS in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients seems to rely on a complex combination of validated criteria used for termination of resuscitation and factors resulting from an intuitive perception of the outcome.