Background: Cardiac arrest is a major public health concern worldwide. The extent and types of randomized controlled trials (RCT)-our most reliable source of clinical evidence-conducted in these high-risk patients over recent years are largely unknown.
Methods And Results: We performed a systematic review, identifying all RCTs published in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from 1995 to 2014 that focused on the acute treatment of nontraumatic cardiac arrest in adults. We then extracted data on the setting of study populations, types and timing of interventions studied, risk of bias, outcomes reported, and how these factors have changed over time. Over this 20-year period, 92 RCTs were published containing 64 309 patients (median, 225.5 per trial). Of these, 81 RCTs (88.0%) involved out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, whereas 4 (4.3%) involved in-hospital cardiac arrest and 7 (7.6%) included both. Eighteen RCTs (19.6%) were performed in the United States, 68 (73.9%) were performed outside the United States, and 6 (6.5%) were performed in both settings. Thirty-eight RCTs (41.3%) evaluated drug therapy, 39 (42.4%) evaluated device therapy, and 15 (16.3%) evaluated protocol improvements. Seventy-four RCTs (80.4%) examined interventions during the cardiac arrest, 15 (16.3%) examined post cardiac arrest treatment, and 3 (3.3%) studied both. Overall, reporting of the risk of bias was limited. The most common outcome reported was return of spontaneous circulation: 86 (93.5%) with only 22 (23.9%) reporting survival beyond 6 months. Fifty-three RCTs (57.6%) reported global ordinal outcomes, whereas 15 (16.3%) reported quality-of-life. RCTs in the past 5 years were more likely to be focused on protocol improvements and postcardiac arrest care.
Conclusions: Important gaps in RCTs of cardiac arrest treatments exist, especially those examining in-hospital cardiac arrest, protocol improvement, postcardiac arrest care, and long-term or quality-of-life outcomes.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.116.002916 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Emergency Medicine, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Recent studies suggested intrathecal vasodilator administration as a therapy to mitigate post-ischemic cerebral hypoperfusion following cardiac arrest. We examined the effects of two commonly used intrathecal vasodilators, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and nicardipine, on cerebral pial microcirculation, cortical tissue oxygen tension (PctO2), and electrocortical activity in the early post-resuscitation period using a porcine model of cardiac arrest. Thirty pigs were resuscitated after 14 min of untreated cardiac arrest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRepositioning a patient from the prone to supine position can delay the initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Investigators used high-fidelity simulation to assess the time to initiate chest compressions and the time during which compressions did not occur for supine and prone CPR. Sixty participants completed a knowledge assessment before and after attending an education session and completing two simulations (ie, supine, prone).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vasc Access
January 2025
RISE@Health, Departamento de Biomedicina - Unidade de Anatomia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Introduction: Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (VA-ECMO) has emerged as a crucial component of critical care medicine, mainly as a lifesaving intervention for patients experiencing refractory cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.
Background: In the past, VA-ECMO decannulation was surgical and often associated with a high rate of periprocedural complications, such as surgical site infection, bleeding, and patient mobilization costs. To reduce the rate of these adverse events, many percutaneous techniques utilizing suture-mediated closing devices have been adopted.
Spontaneous regression in breast cancer is rare but can dramatically improve patient prognosis. Although the underlying mechanism is unknown, it may be due to a biological response to external invasion. An 81-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with a 600x100mm large breast mass.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrehosp Emerg Care
January 2025
Department of Emergency and Transport Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, 2-10-1 Okura, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 157-8535, Japan.
Objectives: In out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), prehospital time is crucial and can be divided into response time, from emergency call to emergency medical service (EMS) contact, and time from EMS contact to hospital arrival. To improve prehospital strategies for pediatric OHCA, it is essential to understand the association between these time intervals and patient outcomes; however, detailed investigations are lacking. The current study aimed to examine the association between response time and time from EMS contact to hospital arrival as well as survival and neurological outcomes in pediatric OHCA.
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