Outcomes in traumatic cardiac arrest patients who underwent advanced life support

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Williamson, Frances
Lawton, Catherine F
Wullschleger, Martin
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2022
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Abstract

Objective: Survival following a traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) remains poor despite research focused on specific management and guideline adaptation. Previous research has identified factors including age, arresting rhythm, injury severity and distance from hospital to be associated with prehospital TCA outcomes. The present study aimed to review the local incidence of TCA to inform local practice within a mature trauma system. Methods: A retrospective trauma database review from 2008 to 2021 was conducted at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. Patients were categorised by prehospital and in-hospital arrest, prehospital return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), and year in relation to TCA management protocol changes. Descriptive comparative analysis was performed with the primary outcome of interest being survival to hospital discharge. Results: Survival to hospital discharge was similar in patients in whom TCA occurred in the prehospital environment and hospital (24 vs 29%). Mechanism of injury, response to intervention and location of cardiac arrest were important outcome associations. Patients with a positive focused assessment with sonography in trauma scan were less likely to achieve ROSC but more likely to survive to discharge. The frequency of prehospital interventions remained similar after the guideline changes; with more patients arriving to the hospital with improved haemodynamic parameters and increased survival. Conclusions: These results support the identification and immediate management of TCA. No patients survived if they did not achieve ROSC by hospital arrival, questioning the role for aggressive management beyond the ED in this cohort. Future research will focus on the identification of patients with potentially positive survival outcomes and further define futile intervention factors.

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Emergency Medicine Australasia

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© 2022 The Authors.Emergency Medicine Australasia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.Emergency Medicine Australasia. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Emergency medicine

Cardiology (incl. cardiovascular diseases)

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Queensland

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Williamson, F; Lawton, CF; Wullschleger, M, Outcomes in traumatic cardiac arrest patients who underwent advanced life support, Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2022

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