Longer CPR in the Emergency Department Increases Survival

There is no widely accepted optimal period of time to continue cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Although patients who require prolonged CPR have worse outcomes than those with early return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), individual practice varies widely, and patient factors certainly play an important role.

These authors used data from a Korean registry of OHCA to determine the association between CPR duration and survival. Among approximately 72,000 adult patients with OHCA of presumed cardiac etiology, nearly 31,000 received CPR in the emergency department (ED). The duration of CPR among EDs ranged from 11 to 45 minutes. The authors grouped hospitals according to the median dur…