In-hospital cardiac resuscitation outside the ICU by nursing staff equipped with automated external defibrillators--the first 500 cases.
BACKGROUND
Since nursing staff in the hospital are frequently the first to witness a cardiac arrest, they may play a central role in the effective management of in-hospital cardiac arrest. In this retrospective study the first 500 in-hospital cardiac arrests in non-monitored areas, which were treated initially by nursing staff equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are reported.


RESULTS
Between April 2001 and December 2004, 500 in-hospital cardiac arrest calls were made: there were false arrests in 61 patients, so a total of 439 patients (88%) were evaluated using the Utstein style of data collection. ROSC occurred in 256 patients (58%), 125 (28%) were discharged from hospital and 95 (22%) were still alive 6 months after discharge. Among the 73 patients with VF/VT 63 (86%) had ROSC, 34 (47%) were discharged from hospital and 28 (38%) were alive after 6 months. The chance of survival was not influenced by the time between the call of the arrest team and the 1st defibrillation but was slightly higher with physicians as in-hospital first responders (p=0.078). In contrast, 366 patients with non-VF/VT, 193 (53%) had ROSC, but only 91 (25%) were discharged from hospital and 67 (18%) were alive after 6 months. The risk of dying was significantly higher in patients with non-VF/VT (p<0.001), and there was a trend to a higher risk ratio in patients older than 65 years and in patients with non-witnessed cardiac arrest (p=0.056 and 0.079, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
This observational study supports the concept of hospital-wide first responder resuscitation performed by nursing staff before the arrival of the CPR-team. Among these patients survival rate was higher in those with VF/VT defibrillated at an early stage. Consequently, it may be assumed that patients may die unnecessarily due to sudden cardiac arrest if proper in-hospital resuscitation programmes are not available.
Gombotz
H
H
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, General Hospital Linz, Austria. hans.gombotz@akh.linz.at
Weh
B
B
Mitterndorfer
W
W
Rehak
P
P
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D047548:Defibrillators; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000628:therapy*; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009726:Nurses