Resuscitation
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Laboratory alerts to guide early intensive care team review in surgical patients: A feasibility, safety, and efficacy pilot randomized controlled trial.
Common blood tests can help identify patients at risk of death, unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or rapid response team (RRT) call. We aimed to test whether early ICU-team review triggered by such laboratory tests (lab alert) is feasible, safe, and can alter physiological variables, clinical management, and clinical outcomes. ⋯ Among surgical patients, lab alerts identify patients with a high mortality. Lab alert-triggered interventions are associated with more first alert-associated RRT activations; more changes in resuscitation status toward a more conservative approach; fewer subsequent alert-associated RRT activations; fewer subsequent alerts, and decreased allied health interventions (ANZCTRN12615000146594).
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Multicenter Study
Hospitals with More-active Participation in Conducting Standardized In-situ Mock Codes have Improved Survival After In-hospital Cardiopulmonary Arrest.
Why is this important?
In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) training is an important component of both foundational and continuing medical education. Nonetheless patient survival after IHCA continues to vary across institutions, making it a priority for improvement.
What did they do?
Josey and team set out to identify whether greater hospital use of in-situ AHCI drills (‘in-situ mock codes’ - ISMC) was associated with improved IHCA survival. They measured both hospital-level simulation participation and IHCA discharge survival rates across 26 hospitals in their US multi-state non-profit health system.
And they found?
Hospitals with more active in-hospital cardiac arrest simulation training also had better IHCA survival (43% vs 32%, OR 0.62), even after adjusting for case-mix and acuity.
It is reasonable to conclude that better in-hospital code training leads to better basic & advanced life support and thus better IHCA survival – suggested, for example, by their observation of shorter time to defibrillation during arrest drills among high participation hospitals.
In fact they extraopated that each additional 1.1 drill/100 beds/year equated with one extra life saved. Interestingly the benefit of ISMC held up for large and medium-sized hospitals, but not small hospitals (=< 25 beds).
Be smart
Whether these results represent a direct casual effect of simulation training to improve survival, or an indirect effect of hospital safety culture on both simulation participation and patient survival, it is nonetheless an important result.
Plus a great example of studying a meaningful outcome (survival to discharge) instead of surrogate markers often employed in resuscitation and simulation research.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
End-tidal carbon dioxide during pediatric in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Based on laboratory cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) investigations and limited adult data, the American Heart Association Consensus Statement on CPR Quality recommends titrating CPR performance to achieve end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) >20 mmHg. ⋯ Mean ETCO2 > 20 mmHg during pediatric in-hospital CPR was not associated with survival to hospital discharge, and ETCO2 was not different in survivors versus non-survivors.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of manual pulse palpation, cardiac ultrasonography and Doppler ultrasonography to check the pulse in cardiopulmonary arrest patients.
For health professionals, the absence of pulse checked by manual palpation is a primary indicator for initiating chest compressions in patients considered to have cardiopulmonary arrest (CA). However, using a pulse check to evaluate perfusion during CA may be associated with some risks of its own. Our objective was to compare the efficiency of cardiac ultrasonography (CUSG), Doppler ultrasonography (DUSG), and manual pulse palpation methods to check the pulse in CA patients. ⋯ The use of real-time CUSG during resuscitation provides a substantial contribution to the resuscitation team. CUSG will allow earlier and more accurate detection of pulse than manual pulse palpation and DUSG.