Resuscitation
-
Comparative Study
Comparison of efficacy of pulsed biphasic waveform and rectilinear biphasic waveform in a short ventricular fibrillation pig model.
The waveform designs and their relative defibrillation efficacy of external biphasic waveforms may differ remarkably among manufacturers. In this study, we compared pulsed biphasic waveform (PBW) with rectilinear biphasic waveform (RBW) and their effects on terminating ventricular fibrillation (VF). ⋯ In the setting of this experiment, there was no difference in terms of defibrillation efficacy and myocardial injury related to the electrical shocks of the two waveforms.
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Validation for a scoring system of the ALS cardiac arrest simulation test (CASTest).
The cardiac arrest simulation test (CASTest) assesses resuscitation knowledge and skills during a simulated cardiac arrest. The aim of this study is to validate an alternative scoring system for measuring individual candidate performance during research involving the CASTest. ⋯ This new simple scoring system can be used to better characterise performance on the ALS course CASTest than the current binary pass-fail outcome.
-
Recent reports consistently point to a substantial decline in the incidence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) as the initial rhythm observed by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) responders and a complementary increase in pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and asystole. Historically, efforts at improving survival have focused primarily on patients found in VF. ⋯ However, the "yield" of survivors comes largely from the non-shocked patients. Therefore, it is critical that we start evaluating treatments specifically for the PEA and asystole groups.