Bibliographie sur l'arrêt cardiaque

Objectives: Existing scores for risk stratification after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are either medically outdated, limited to registry data, small cohorts, and certain healthcare systems only, or include rather complex calculations. The objective of this study was to develop an easy-to-use risk prediction score for short-term mortality in patients with successfully resuscitated OHCA without ST-segment elevation on the post-resuscitation electrocardiogram, derived from the Angiography after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation (TOMAHAWK) trial. The risk score was externally validated in the Coronary Angiography after Cardiac Arrest Trial (COACT) cohort (shockable arrest rhythms only) and additional hospitals from Berlin, Germany (shockable and nonshockable arrest rhythms).

Design: Predefined subanalysis of the TOMAHAWK trial.

Setting: Development and external validation across 52 centers in three countries.

Patients: Adult patients with successfully resuscitated OHCA and no ST-segment elevations.

Interventions: Utilization of the TOMAHAWK risk score upon hospital admission.

Measurements and main results: The risk score was developed using a backward stepwise regression analysis. Between one and four points were attributed to each variable in the risk score, resulting in a score with three risk categories for 30-day mortality: low (0-2), intermediate (3-6), and high (7-10). Five variables emerged as independent predictors for 30-day mortality and were used as risk score parameters: age of 72 years old or older, known diabetes, unshockable initial electrocardiogram rhythm, time until return of spontaneous circulation greater than or equal to 23 minutes, and admission arterial lactate level greater than or equal to 8 mmol/L. The 30-day mortality rates for each risk category were 23.6%, 68.8%, and 86.2%, respectively (p < 0.001) with a good discrimination at an area under the curve of 0.82. External validation in the COACT and Berlin cohorts showed short-term mortality rates of 23.1% and 20.4% (score 0-2), 44.8% and 48.1% (score 3-6), and 78.9% and 73.3% (score 7-10), respectively (each p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The TOMAHAWK risk score can be easily calculated in daily clinical practice and strongly correlated with mortality in patients with successfully resuscitated OHCA without ST-segment elevation on post-resuscitation electrocardiogram.

Importance: Understanding the relationship between patients' clinical characteristics and outcomes is fundamental to medicine. When critically ill patients die after withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST), the inability to observe the potential for recovery with continued aggressive care could bias future clinical decisions and research.

Objective: To quantify the frequency with which experts consider patients who died after WLST following resuscitated cardiac arrest to have had recovery potential if life-sustaining therapy had been continued.
DESIGN, SETTING,

And participants: This prospective cohort study included comatose adult patients (aged ≥18 years) treated following resuscitation from cardiac arrest at a single academic medical center between January 1, 2010, and July 31, 2022. Patients with advanced directives limiting critical care or who experienced cardiac arrest of traumatic or neurologic etiology were excluded. An international cohort of experts in post-arrest care based on clinical experience and academic productivity was identified. Experts reviewed the cases between August 24, 2022, and February 11, 2024.

Exposure: Patients who died after WLST.

Main outcome and measures: Three or more experts independently estimated recovery potential for each patient had life-sustaining treatment been continued, using a 7-point numerical ordinal scale. In the primary analysis, which involved the patient cases with death after WLST, a 1% or greater estimated recovery potential was considered to be clinically meaningful. In secondary analyses, thresholds of 5% and 10% estimated recovery probability were explored.

Results: A total of 2391 patients (median [IQR] age, 59 [48-69] years; 1455 men [60.9%]) were included, of whom 714 (29.9%) survived to discharge. Cases of uncertain outcome (1431 patients [59.8%]) in which WLST preceded death were reviewed by 38 experts who rendered 4381 estimates of recovery potential. In 518 cases (36.2%; 95% CI, 33.7%-38.7%), all experts believed that recovery potential was less than 1% if life-sustaining therapies had been continued. In the remaining 913 cases (63.8%; 95% CI, 61.3%-66.3%), at least 1 expert believed that recovery potential was at least 1%. In 227 cases (15.9%; 95% CI, 14.0%-17.9%), all experts agreed that recovery potential was at least 1%, and in 686 cases (47.9%; 95% CI, 45.3%-50.6%), expert estimates differed at this threshold.

Conclusions and relevance: In this cohort study of comatose patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest, most who died after WLST were considered by experts to have had recovery potential. These findings suggest that novel solutions to avoiding deaths based on biased prognostication or incomplete information are needed.

Aim: To assess the feasibility and safety of drone-delivered automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in real out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in Denmark, addressing the critical need for timely defibrillation in OHCAs.

Methods: In this prospective clinical study in Aalborg, Denmark, an AED-carrying drone was dispatched for suspected OHCAs, from June 2022 to April 2023. The drone was stationed in an urban area (maximum flight-radius 6 km, covering 110,000 inhabitants) within designated airspace not requiring preflight approval from air-traffic control. Upon OHCA-suspicion, the emergency medical dispatcher activated the drone, which autonomously took off and flew beyond-visual-line-of-sight to the OHCA-location. On-site, a remote drone pilot (stationed cross-border) winched down the AED near the patient's location. Flights were restricted to dry weather, mean windspeeds < 8 m/s, and 8 am to 10 pm.

Results: Of 76 suspected OHCAs, 27 occurred during non-operating hours (nighttime). Of the remaining 49 OHCAs, 16 (33%) were eligible for drone take-off, all of which resulted in successful AED-delivery, without any adverse events. Weather caused 14 cancellations (29%), technical issues (dispatch centre, drone, or hangar problems) 13 (27%), and closed airspace 6 (12%). The median drone response time from activation to AED-delivery was 04:47 min (IQR 03:45-05:27), and the corresponding ambulance response time was 03:25 min (IQR 02:43-04:14). No drone-delivered AEDs were attached.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the safety and feasibility of drone-delivered AEDs to real OHCAs. Improved time to AED delivery was limited due to swift ambulance service, highlighting the importance of strategic AED drone placement.

Aim: Targeted temperature management (TTM) is commonly used in the setting of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) to improve survival and functional outcomes. However, real-world evidence of effects and optimal temperature are limited. To help address this, we examined associations between TTM and neurologically-intact survival after non-traumatic OHCA across changing institutional TTM temperature goals.

Methods: We performed a single-site, retrospective, cohort study of adults with non-traumatic OHCA who arrived comatose to the emergency department and received TTM from 2010 to 2020. Primary exposure was TTM goal temperature. Institutional goal temperature changed from 33 °C (TTM33-1) to 36 °C (TTM36) in 2014 and back to 33 °C (TTM33-2) in 2017. The primary outcome was neurologically-intact survival at discharge, defined as Cerebral Performance Category score of 1 or 2. Secondary outcomes included survival to hospital discharge and care processes. Multivariable logistic regression analysis evaluated association between TTM goal and neurological outcome.

Results: Of 1,469 OCHA patients meeting inclusion criteria, 800 (54%) received TTM. TTM was initiated more frequently during TTM33-1 (60%) than TTM36 (52%) or TTM33-2 (52%). After adjustment for demographic and cardiac arrest characteristics, there was no significant association between TTM goal temperature of 33 °C and neurologically-intact survival, versus 36 °C (adjusted odds ratio 1.10, 95% confidence interval 0.76, 1.60).

Conclusion: TTM goal temperature was not significantly associated with neurologically-intact survival of adult OHCA patients who arrived comatose to the emergency department.