Abstract 75: Ventricular Fibrillation in Cardiac Arrest with Nonshockable Initial Rhythm

Abstract

The initial shockable rhythm in cardiac arrest is a well known factor of good prognosis. Little is known about the influence of the onset of ventricular fibrillation during resuscitation at cardiac arrest whose initial rhythm was non-shockable. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a continuous registry of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) Inclusion criteria, all consecutive patients suffering OHCA attended by emergency teams in Andalusia, Spain. Period January 2008 - December 2012. Results: 5067 patients were included. According to the initial cardiac arrest rhythm 1038 (20.5%) cases presented initial shockable rhythm (SR) and 4029 (79.5%) with non-shockable initial rhythm (NSR). Of these patients 150 (3%) reported one or more episodes of ventricular fibrillation during resuscitation (NSRVF). The main clinical characteristics of these three groups are shown in Table 1. Variables associated with good neurological status at hospital discharge are shown in Table 2. Conclusions: NSRVF patients present higher survival with good neurological status than NSR patients. These patients may represent a third prognostic group in cardiac arrest with a survival rate between shockable and non-shockable initial rhythms. Table 1. Clinical data of patients regarding rhythm of cardiac arrest Table 2. Variables associated with good neurological status at discharge (CPC 1-2 ) SD: Standard deviation. IQR: Interquartile range. OR: Odds Ratio. CI: Confidence Interval. ET: Emergency Team. VF: Ventricular Fibrillation. CPR: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CPC: Cerebral Perfomance Category. ROSC: Return of spontaneous circulation