Resuscitation
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The characteristics and outcomes of patients that suffer cardiac arrest due to acute pulmonary embolism (PE) are not well studied. We compared the characteristics and outcomes of cardiac arrest survivors that suffered PE with other forms of cardiac arrest. ⋯ Cardiac arrest survivors with PE did not have significantly better survival than patients with non-PE related cardiac arrest. In addition, use of thrombolytics did not improve survival but these patients ended up requiring transfusion that could have off set the benefit of thrombolytics.
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We aimed to assess temporal changes in the incidence of OHCAs of presumed cardiac and non-cardiac aetiologies. ⋯ Our data indicates that by 2052, non-cardiac aetiologies could be the leading cause of OHCA in our region. These findings have important EMS-system and public health implications.
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Worldwide, call-taker recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (CA) suffers from poor accuracy, leading to missed opportunities for dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DACPR) in CA patients and inappropriate DACPR in non-CA patients. Diagnostic protocols typically ask 2 questions in sequence: 'Is the patient conscious?' and 'Is the patient breathing normally?' As part of quality improvement efforts, our national emergency medical call centre changed the breathing question to an instruction for callers to place their hand onto the patient's abdomen to evaluate for the presence of breathing. ⋯ Dispatch assessment using the hand on abdomen method appeared feasible but uptake by dispatch staff was moderate. Diagnostic performance of this method should be verified in randomised trials.