Document Detail


If a patient arrests after cardiac surgery is it acceptable to delay cardiopulmonary resuscitation until you have attempted either defibrillation or pacing?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  18544586     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
A best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was whether it is acceptable to delay cardiopulmonary resuscitation if a patient arrests after cardiac surgery in order to attempt defibrillation or pacing, prior to performing external cardiac massage. Altogether 550 papers were found in Medline and 990 in Embase using the reported search, of which 22 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. We conclude that current resuscitation guidelines state that there is no evidence to support or refute external cardiac massage prior to defibrillation in-hospital, although a benefit has been shown for patients out-of-hospital if the response time is over 4-5 min. In addition, four large studies including the AHA National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, who reported the findings of 6789 in-hospital arrests, emphasise the importance of early defibrillation within 1-2 min. More concerning in patients post-cardiac surgery are four case reports after cardiothoracic surgery and five in the non-surgical literature where significant harm has been caused from external cardiac massage, although equally we found cohort studies of cardiac surgical patients who had external cardiac massage followed by re-sternotomy and found no trauma due to external cardiac massage. We recommend that guidelines for immediate external massage should be adhered to currently as the evidence that these guidelines may do harm is not yet strong enough to recommend a change in practice. However, we acknowledge that there are no in-hospital data to support very short periods of external massage prior to defibrillation and there have been examples of damage to the myocardium due to external massage. This should be borne in mind when external massage is being performed on a patient after cardiac surgery.
Authors:
Ulf Lockowandt; Adrian Levine; Tim Strang; Joel Dunning
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Review     Date:  2008-06-10
Journal Detail:
Title:  Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery     Volume:  7     ISSN:  1569-9285     ISO Abbreviation:  Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg     Publication Date:  2008 Oct 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2008-09-19     Completed Date:  2008-12-02     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101158399     Medline TA:  Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  878-85     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Anaesthesiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. ulf.lockowand@ks.se
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Benchmarking
Cardiac Pacing, Artificial*
Cardiac Surgical Procedures / adverse effects*
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / adverse effects*
Electric Countershock*
Evidence-Based Medicine
Female
Guideline Adherence
Heart Arrest / etiology,  therapy*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Risk Assessment
Time Factors
Treatment Outcome
Comments/Corrections
Comment In:
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2008 Oct;7(5):886   [PMID:  18801817 ]
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2008 Oct;7(5):886-7   [PMID:  18801814 ]
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2008 Oct;7(5):886   [PMID:  18801815 ]
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2008 Oct;7(5):886   [PMID:  18801816 ]
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2008 Oct;7(5):885-6   [PMID:  18801813 ]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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