| Summary: | Hægt er að lesa af greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn í Additional Links OBJECTIVES: A physician manned ambulance has provided advanced resuscitation service in the Reykjavík area for over 20 years. Out of hospital resuscitation since 1982 has been done with average response time of 4.6-4.9 minutes, the survival rate to hospital admission has been 31-40% and survival to hospital discharge 16-17%. In the years preceding this study, several changes were done in the service; the service area was enlarged, dispatch was centralized to one emergency number, the training of EMT s and physicians was improved and a two-tier rendezvous system was adopted. Cell phone coverage reached over 90% of the population. The study was done in 1999-2002 with the objective to: 1. measure the results of attempted prehospital resuscitations for cardiac diseases in the area, 2. to monitor the effect of bystander response, 3. to estimate the effect of changes in the service prior to the study period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A ambulance staffed with EMTs and one with a physician were dispatched to all possible cases of cardiac arrest. Resuscitation was attempted using the AHA guidelines for resuscitation. Prospective data was collected following the Utstein template recorded by the physician on call. RESULTS: A total of 319 resuscitative attempts were made during the years 1999-2002, excluding hanging, SIDS, drowning, suicide, trauma, internal bleeding and other diseases, a total of 232 arrests were considered of cardiac origin giving an incidence of 33/100,000/year. The average response time was 6,1 min. Of 232 cardiac resuscitation attempts 140 patients (60%) were in VF/VT, 53 (23%) in asystole and 39 (17%) in other rhythms. Ninety-six (41%) of all patients survived being admitted to hospital ward and 44 (19%) survived to discharge with 39 being alive at 12 months. Of patients in VF/VT, 79 (56%) survived to hospital admission and 39 (28%) to hospital discharge. Resuscitation was more successful in cases of witnessed ...
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