The 500th survivor of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Arizona may be one of the most significant advances for the University of Arizona’s Resuscitation Research Group and the Save Hearts in Arizona Registry & Education (SHARE) Program during 2010.
Arizona research also
spurred the American Heart Association to adopt new guidelines that stress
chest compressions over breathing by bystanders in the event of sudden cardiac
arrest – an advance ranked by Time Magazine (Dec. 9) as the fifth most
significant medical breakthrough in 2010. The technique – known as
Compression-Only CPR – was developed by the Resuscitation Research Group at the
UA Sarver Heart Center, which published research in the Journal of the American
Medical Association (Oct. 16) that showed that during a five-year study in
Arizona, chest-compression-only CPR increased survival in cases of cardiac
arrest.
“The SHARE Program
promotes a comprehensive, standardized system of care for out-of-hospital
cardiac arrest throughout Arizona, encompassing all links in the chain of
survival, including bystander response, emergency medical dispatcher CPR
instruction, updated protocols for emergency medical services providers, and
standardized care at hospitals that are designated cardiac receiving centers,”
says Bentley Bobrow, MD, medical director of emergency medical services at the
Arizona Department of Health Services and a member of the UA Sarver Heart
Center Resuscitation Research Group.
SHARE, established in
2005, has partnered with many groups to collect and analyze data related to all
aspects of out-of-hospital-cardiac arrest care. During 2010, SHARE logged-in
the 500th survivor of cardiac arrest in Arizona, a number that has more than
doubled since the program began five years ago.
“In Arizona we have an
estimated 1,250 cases of sudden cardiac arrest each year. Prior to 2005, only
about 3 percent were likely to survive,” says Karl B. Kern, MD, acting chief of
cardiology at the UA College of Medicine and chair of the Resuscitation
Research Group. “With new protocols that include encouraging bystander
chest-compression-only CPR, less invasive protocols for emergency responders
and updated protocols that include therapeutic hypothermia at hospitals,
survival has more than doubled to about 8 percent. This means an increase of
about 60 additional lives saved each year.”
“We can’t overstate the
role of fire departments in educating their communities and their willingness
to embrace new protocols that are helping to save lives in Arizona,” says Dr.
Bobrow. “Each year in Arizona an estimated 5,000 EMS professionals work on
out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases. With continued measurement of these
incidents and outcomes along each link in the chain of survival, we hope to see
more lives saved with what we learn from this data.”
Sudden cardiac arrest is
the witnessed (seen or heard) collapse of a person who is unresponsive and
either not breathing or struggling to breathe (gasping). Bystanders are
encouraged to check for responsiveness (shake and shout), direct someone to
call 911 or make the call themselves if alone, and begin rapid chest
compressions to keep the patient’s blood flowing until emergency responders
arrive.
To see a six-minute training video, visit http://medicine.arizona.edu/sarver-cpr
