[Has the lifesaving technician system improved the outcome of out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients?].
The role of the lifesaving technician (LST) system on the outcome of out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients was examined retrospectively. The percentage of the patients resuming spontaneous circulation before arrival at the hospital was 2.2-4.3 times higher in the group with the prehospital care by LSTs ('93: 3.9% and '94: 2.0%) than by ordinary ambulance personnel (OAP) (0.9%), but there was no difference in the percentage of return of spontaneous circulation (LST '93: 33.0%, '94: 27.3%, OAP 37.8%), survival rate (LST '93: 3.1%, '94: 1.4%, OAP 1.8%) and discharge rate (LST '93: 1.0%, '94: 0.7%, OAP 1.8%) of the patients with cardiopulmonary arrest on arrival. Time interval from fire department receipt of call to ambulance departure and arrival at the hospital was significantly longer in the groups with the prehospital care by LSTs than by OAP. There was no difference in the outcome of cardiopulmonary arrest patients with the prehospital care by LSTs between '93 and '94. Our results suggest that making much more effort with more advanced technics to start the spontaneous circulation on the spot may be required to improve the outcome of out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients.
Ishikawa
S
S
Department of Anesthesia, Tokyo Metropolitan Fuchu Hospital, Japan.
Tanaka
N
N
Saito
Y
Y
Imamura
M
M
Maeda
M
M
Hikawa
Y
Y
Yasuda
K
K
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome