Leif Svensson

Background: Therapeutic hypothermia (TH, 32-34°C) has been shown to improve neurological outcome in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. Earlier initiation of TH may increase the beneficial effects. Experimental studies have suggested that starting TH during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may further enhance its neuroprotective effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether intra-arrest TH (IATH), initiated in the field with trans nasal evaporative cooling (TNEC), would provide outcome benefits when compared to standard of care in patients being resuscitated from OHCA. Methods/design: We describe the methodology of a multi-centre, randomized, controlled trial comparing IATH delivered through TNEC device (Rhinochill, Benechill Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) during CPR to standard treatment, including TH initiated after hospital admission. The primary outcome is neurological intact survival defined as cerebral performance category 1–2 at 90 days among those patients who are admitted to the hospital. Secondary outcomes include survival at 90 days, proportion of patients achieving a return to spontaneous circulation (ROSC), the proportion of patients admitted alive to the hospital and the proportion of patients achieving target temperature (<34°C) within the first 4 hours since CA. Discussion: This ongoing trial will assess the impact of IATH with TNEC, which may be able to rapidly induce brain cooling and have fewer side effects than other methods, such as cold fluid infusion. If this intervention is found to improve neurological outcome, its early use in the pre-hospital setting will be considered as an early neuro-protective strategy in OHCA. Trial registration: NCT01400373.

Registration of data from a major incident or disaster serves several purposes such as to record data for evaluation of response as well as for research. Data needed can often be retrieved after an incident while other must be recorded during the incident. There is a need for a consensus on what is essential to record from a disaster response. The aim of this study was to identify key indicators essential for initial disaster medical response registration. By this is meant nationally accepted processes involved, from the time of the emergency call to the emergency medical communication centre until medical care is provided at the emergency department.

Disaster medicine is a fairly young scientific discipline and there is a need for the development of new methods for evaluation and research. This includes full-scale disaster exercisers. A standardized concept on how to evaluate these exercises, could lead to easier identification of pitfalls caused by system-errors in the organization. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using a combination of performance and outcome indicators so that results can be compared in standardized full-scale exercises. Two multidisciplinary, full-scale exercises were studied in 2008 and 2010. The panorama had the same setup. Sets of performance indicators combined with indicators for unfavorable patient outcome were recorded in predesigned templates. Evaluators, all trained in a standardized way at a national disaster medicine centre, scored the results on predetermined locations; at the scene, at hospital and at the regional command and control. All data regarding the performance indicators of the participants during the exercises were obtained as well as all data regarding indicators for patient outcome. Both exercises could therefore be compared regarding performance (processes) as well as outcome indicators. The data from the performance indicators during the exercises showed higher scores for the prehospital command in the second exercise 15 points and 3 points respectively. Results from the outcome indicators, patient survival and patient complications, demonstrated a higher number of preventable deaths and a lower number of preventable complications in the exercise 2010. In the exercise 2008 the number of preventable deaths was lower and the number of preventable complications was higher. Standardized multidisciplinary, full-scale exercises in different settings can be conducted and evaluated with performance indicators combined with outcome indicators enabling results from exercises to be compared. If exercises are performed in a standardized way, results may serve as a basis for lessons learned. Future use of the same concept using the combination of performance indicators and patient outcome indicators may demonstrate new and important evidence that could lead to new and better knowledge that also may be applied during real incidents.

Emergency medical dispatchers give instructions on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) over the telephone to callers requesting help for a patient with suspected cardiac arrest, before the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. A previous study indicated that instructions to perform CPR consisting of only chest compression result in a treatment efficacy that is similar or even superior to that associated with instructions given to perform standard CPR, which consists of both compression and ventilation. That study, however, was not powered to assess a possible difference in survival. The aim of this prospective, randomized study was to evaluate the possible superiority of compression-only CPR over standard CPR with respect to survival.