Termination of Resuscitation Criteria for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Even without return of spontaneous circulation, some patients had good outcomes if the arrest was witnessed by emergency medical services or they had a shockable rhythm.

Survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is low, and OHCA victims should not be transported if resuscitation attempts would be futile. The Universal Termination of Resuscitation Guidelines suggest that resuscitation should be terminated if, after at least four 2-minute intervals of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, three criteria are met: 1) the arrest was not witnessed by emergency medical services (EMS); 2) there has been no return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC); 3) no shocks were delivered. These investigators used data from a large prospective database of adult patients with OHCA of presumed cardiac origin to test the performance of these criteria versus the ROSC criterion alone.

Among 9467 patients who did not achieve prehosp…

Reviewing Author

Daniel M. Lindberg, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Grant/Research SupportEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; MINDSOURCE

Editorial BoardsThe Quarterly Update: Reviews of Current Child Abuse Medical Research; Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesThe Helfer Society (Executive Committee Member)