Abstract 125: "Load & Go" Criteria in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients for the Use of Emergency-Extracorporal Life Support at the Emergency Department

Abstract

Background: The outcome of patients after OHCA has been poor. The probability of return of spontaneous circulation decreases over time. New therapeutic attempts like E-ECLS at the ED are tried to improve outcome of selected cases. The "Vienna Cardiac Arrest Registry" (VICAR) was introduced August 1, 2013 to collect Utstein-style data. Our aim was to identify those patients which might fulfill ‘load&go’ criteria for E-ECLS at the ED after OHCA. Methods: Therefore VICAR was retrospectively analysed for following criteria: age<75a;witnessed OHCA; basic life support (BLS); ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT); no return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) within 15min CPR by EMS. Patients had to fulfill all these criteria. Results: Overall 701 patients were registered from August 1, 2013 to April 30, 2014. Excluded were because of poor documentation 26(4%) patients, because of missing criteria data 49(7%) and because they were younger than 18 years 7 (1%). The final analysis included 619(88%) patients; of those 68(11%) were transported under ongoing CPR to the ED. Moreover E-ECLS was applied in 15 patients at the ED. Conclusion: We found 30 (5%) patients to fulfill ’load & go’ criteria. Of 68 patients, who were transported with ongoing CPR to the ED only 8 (8%) met the criteria. Further promotion of these criteria within the ambulance crews is needed. Maybe these criteria could then serve as a decision support for emergency physicians/paramedics, which patients to transport under ongoing CPR to the ED for E-ECLS.