Survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with early initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Emergency Medical Services and Sudden Cardiac Arrest: The

“…Researchers have observed that when CPR is started early, victims are more likely to be in VF when a monitoring unit arrives at the patient's side (106). In a study from King County, Washington, 80% of cardiac arrest victims were in VFIVT (ventricular tachycardia) if they had received early bystander CPR, compared with 68% if they had received delayed CPR (27). In Stockholm, Sweden, 67% of persons in cardiac arrest who had CPR started by bystanders were in VFIVT, whereas only 45% of persons without bystander CPR were in VFIVT (59).…”

“…The association between early CPR and improved survival is related to the presence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) (10,27,59,106). Researchers have observed that when CPR is started early, victims are more likely to be in VF when a monitoring unit arrives at the patient's side (106).…”

“…Many reports provide data to compare the survival rates of cardiac arrest victims who receive "early" CPR (defined here as CPR initiated by citizens or bystanders) with the survival rates of those who receive "late" CPR (that CPR initiated by emergency responders) (22,25,27,38,46,52,53,64,66,89,90,95,97,(101)(102)(103)112). "Early" usually differs from "late" CPR by about four minutes.…”

“…These three studies suggest that CPR prolongs the duration of VF and that the presence of VF should be considered a dependent, rather than an independent, variable in analyses of survival data. In addition, victims who receive early CPR are more likely after electrical shock to convert to a cardiac rhythm associated with restoration of spontaneous circulation (27,87). In King County, Washington, persons who were in VF at the time of EMS arrival had a 37% rate of long-term survival if they had received bystander CPR, compared with 29% if they had not (statistically significant, P<0.05) (27).…”

Vascular and Neuronal Ischemic Damage in Cryonics Patients

“…47 A study of nearly seventeen thousand out-of-hospital human cardiac arrest patients found that only about one in 500 patients were living after one month if the delay between a call and ambulance arrival was between 8 and 12 minutes. 48 Ultimate survival is not the same as immediate death, however.…”