Abstract 101: Top Quality of Ventilation During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Is Hard to Reach
INTRODUCTION: With an incidence of ~45patients with out-of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) /100.000 inhabitants per year and thus over 700 cases annually, but a survival rate as low as 10%, OHCA remains still a challenge the chain of survival. Recently ventilation has gained less importance for BLS and thus the question arises, if this attitude was mirrored during ALS measures provided by ambulance crews. Therefore our analysis assessed the quality of ventilation during out of hospital cardiac arrests. METHODS: Over a period of 9 months, from August 1st 2013 until April 30th 2014, all patients suffering from an OHCA, aged 18 years and above and treated by the emergency medical service crews in Vienna, Austria were included in this study. A collective of 701 consecutive cases have been analyzed using the ECG- and impedance data recorded by the defibrillators used. On the basis of this data, the abidance of the quality standards of ventilation was examined using the current guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council of 2010 as gold standard. After the evaluation of each case, the responding EMS-teams were informed about the quality of the resuscitation via a feedback form. RESULTS: Endotracheal intubation was accomplished in 338 patients (47%). Ventilation was performed in accordance to the ERC guidelines in 49% (CI: 46-52) of total recorded ventilation minutes. Patients who had restoration of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) (n=135) after being intubated were ventilated with 9 (CI: 9-11; variance: 11) ventilations per minute. In patients not achieving ROSC (n=203) 10 (CI: 9-11; variance: 25) ventilations per minute were administered. Patients that were ventilated with a supraglottic airway device or a bag valve and mask received 6(SD±4) ventilations per minute. CONCLUSION: The high ventilation rate standard deviations within the compliance to guidelines suggest that there are numerous cases in which ventilation standards are not met. Therefore further analysis will be necessary to find out, what influence this might have on outcome and if it will be necessary to put more emphasis in upcoming discussions on the quality of ventilation at least during advanced life support.