Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Prehospital Intubation

Worldwide, death from cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital setting remains the leading cause of mortality. Focuses have aimed at improving bystander CPR, public access to AEDs, minimizing chest compression interruptions, and decreasing the emphasis on advanced airway management. This latter concept has become so important that the AHA/ASA have now changed their “ABC” philosophy to “CAB.” Below is the review of the literature that has changed this philosophy.

Does Prehospital Intubation Attempts Affect Survival to Hospital Discharge in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA)? ¹

What they did

• Retrospective study design at single site (Mecklenbeurg County, NC)
• 1,142 cardiac arrests

Primary outcomes

• Pre-hospital return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC)
• Survival to hospital discharge

Descriptive data

• 697/1142 (61%) of patients were male
• 619/1142 (54.2%) of patients were Caucasian
• 302/1142 (25.5%) had VF/VT arrest
• 142/1142 (12.8%) witnessed by EMS or first responders
• 299/1142 (26.2%) had pre-hospital ROSC

Results

• Pre-hospital endotracheal intubation (ETI) vs NO ETI: 25.3% vs 45.3% with pre-hospital ROSC
• 118/299 (39.5%) of patients with ROSC were discharged alive

Limitations

• ETI attempts was a self reported variable
• Some outcome data from the hospitals was missing

Conclusions

There is a NEGATIVE association between pre-hospital ETI attempts and survival from OHCA.

Does Prehospital Intubation Attempts Affect Survival and Neurologic Outcome in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA)? ²

What they did

• Prospective, nationwide, population-based study using all-Japan Utstein Registry
• 649,654 adults in Japan with OHCA

Primary outcome

• Favorable neurological outcome 1 month after OHCA

Descriptive data

• 367,837/649,359 (57%) underwent BVM
• 281,522/649,359 (43%) underwent advanced airway management
• Overall rate of ROSC 6.5%
• Overall rate of 1 month survival 4.7%
• Overall rate of favorable neurologic outcome 2.2%

Results

Looking at ETI vs supraglottic airway vs BVM –

• Favorable neurological outcome: 1.0%, 1.1%, and 2.9%, respectively
• OR for favorable neurological outcome: 0.41, 0.38, 0.38, respectively

Limitations

• Observational study
• Absence of information regarding the process of intubation
• Japanese population only

Conclusion

In OHCA, advanced airway (ETI or supraglottic airway) was independently associated with a DECREASED neurologically favorable outcome compared to conventional BVM.

Bottom Line

Pre-hospital advanced airway WORSENS survival and neurologic outcome in OHCA.

Author information

Salim Rezaie, MD

ALiEM Associate Editor
Clinical Assistant Professor of EM and IM
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Founder, Editor, Author of R.E.B.E.L. EM and REBEL Reviews

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