Resuscitation
-
Predicting recovery in comatose post-cardiac arrest patients requires multiple modalities of prognostic assessment. In isolation, absent N20 cortical responses in somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) are a specific predictor of poor outcome. It is unknown whether SSEP results, when assessed in the context of prior knowledge (demographic and clinical information), change the pretest predicted probability of recovery. ⋯ Adding the N20 SSEP response results to prior knowledge changed the predicted probability of WLST and survival to discharge in comatose post-arrest patients.
-
The HOPE score, based on covariates available at hospital admission, predicts the probability of in-hospital survival after extracorporeal life support (ECLS) rewarming of a given hypothermic cardiac arrest patient with accidental hypothermia. Our goal was to externally validate the HOPE score. ⋯ This study provides the first external validation of the HOPE score reaching good calibration and excellent discrimination. Clinically, the prediction of the HOPE score remains accurate in the validation sample. The HOPE score may replace serum potassium in the future as the triage tool when considering ECLS rewarming of a hypothermic cardiac arrest victim.