Head and Thorax Elevation During CPR Using Circulatory Adjuncts Associated with Improved Survival

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A new clinical paper published in the leading journal Resuscitation could be a breakthrough in dramatically increasing the resuscitation of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) victims.

The study’s results, which will be reported at the 2022 American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Scientific Assembly in San Francisco, show that irrespective of initial cardiac rhythm, even Asystole/Pulseless Electrical Activity, ACE-CPR was associated with higher adjusted odds ratios (OR) of survival to hospital discharge relative to conventional supine CPR (C-CPR), when initiated in less than 18 minutes after the emergency call.

Authored by twenty-five of the most respected names in prehospital medicine, the article, Head and thorax elevation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation using circulatory adjuncts is associated with improved survival, shows that individuals suffering a medical cardiac arrest stand a significantly better chance of surviving to discharge neurologically intact from a hospital if they receive a new head and shoulder elevation approach to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), especially if initial treatment using the new approach is initiated in less than 18 minutes after the call for help is received at an emergency dispatch center.

The new technique for resuscitation combining controlled elevation of the head and thorax with active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR and the use of an impedance threshold device (ITD), has shown to improve neurological survival significantly versus conventional CPR (C-CPR) by decreasing intracranial pressure and improving cerebral perfusion pressure, cerebral blood flow, and neurologically favorable survival.

Rapid use of ACE-CPR was able to perfuse the brain more effectively with oxygenated blood, associated with higher probabilities of ROSC and favorable neurological survival, and a higher likelihood of survival to hospital discharge after OHCA. Irrespective of the presenting rhythm, when ACE-CPR was started rapidly, there was a higher probability of survival to hospital discharge versus C-CPR.

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