EMS Treatment Guidelines in Major Traumatic Brain Injury With Positive Pressure Ventilation.

Importance: The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) study demonstrated improved survival in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) following implementation of the prehospital treatment guidelines. The impact of implementing these guidelines in the subgroup of patients who received positive pressure ventilation (PPV) is unknown. Objective: To evaluate the association of implementation of prehospital TBI evidence-based guidelines with survival among patients with prehospital PPV. Design, Setting, and Participants: The EPIC study was a multisystem, intention-to-treat study using a before/after controlled design. Evidence-based guidelines were implemented by emergency medical service agencies across Arizona. This subanalysis was planned a priori and included participants who received prehospital PPV. Outcomes were compared between the preimplementation and postimplementation cohorts using logistic regression, stratified by predetermined TBI severity categories (moderate, severe, or critical). Data were collected from January 2007 to June 2017, and data were analyzed from January to February 2023. Exposure: Implementation of the evidence-based guidelines for the prehospital care of patient with TBI. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge, and the secondary outcome was survival to admission. Results: Among the 21 852 participants in the main study, 5022 received prehospital PPV (preimplementation, 3531 participants; postimplementation, 1491 participants). Of 5022 included participants, 3720 (74.1%) were male, and the median (IQR) age was 36 (22-54) years. Across all severities combined, survival to admission improved (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.59; 95% CI, 1.28-1.97), while survival to discharge did not (aOR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.78-1.13). Within the cohort with severe TBI but not in the moderate or critical subgroups, survival to hospital admission increased (aOR, 6.44; 95% CI, 2.39-22.00), as did survival to discharge (aOR, 3.52; 95% CI, 1.96-6.34). Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe TBI who received active airway interventions in the field, guideline implementation was independently associated with improved survival to hospital admission and discharge. This was true whether they received basic airway interventions or advanced airways. These findings support the current guideline recommendations for aggressive prevention/correction of hypoxia and hyperventilation in patients with severe TBI, regardless of which airway type is used.

Guidelines for Prehospital Management of Traumatic Brain Injury 3rd Edition: Executive Summary.

Prehospital care markedly influences outcome from traumatic brain injury, yet it remains highly variable. The Brain Trauma Foundation's guidelines informing prehospital care, first published in 2002, have sought to identify and disseminate best practices. Many of its recommendations relate to the management of airway, breathing and circulation, and infrastructure for this care. Compliance with the second edition of these guidelines has been associated with significantly improved survival. A working group developed evidence-based recommendations informing assessment, treatment, and transport decision-making relevant to the prehospital care of brain injured patients. A literature search spanning May 2005 to January 2022 supplemented data contained in the 2nd edition. Identified studies were assessed for quality and used to inform evidence-based recommendations. A total of 122 published articles formed the evidentiary base for this guideline update including 5 providing Class I evidence, 35 providing Class II evidence, and 98 providing Class III evidence for the various topics. Forty evidence-based recommendations were generated, 30 of which were strong and 10 of which were weak. In many cases, new evidence allowed guidelines from the 2nd edition to be strengthened. Development of guidelines on some new topics was possible including the prehospital administration of tranexamic acid. A management algorithm is also presented. These guidelines help to identify best practices for prehospital traumatic brain injury care, and they also identify gaps in knowledge which we hope will be addressed before the next edition.

Correlation between prehospital and in-hospital hypotension and outcomes after traumatic brain injury.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Hypotension has a powerful effect on patient outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The relative impact of hypotension occurring in the field versus during early hospital resuscitation is unknown. We evaluated the association between hypotension and mortality and non-mortality outcomes in four cohorts defined by where the hypotension occurred [neither prehospital nor hospital, prehospital only, hospital only, both prehospital and hospital]. METHODS: Subjects ≥10 years with major TBI were included. Standard statistics were used for unadjusted analyses. We used logistic regression, controlling for significant confounders, to determine the adjusted odds (aOR) for outcomes in each of the three cohorts. RESULTS: Included were 12,582 subjects (69.8% male; median age 44 (IQR 26-61). Mortality by hypotension status: No hypotension: 9.2% (95%CI: 8.7-9.8%); EMS hypotension only: 27.8% (24.6-31.2%); hospital hypotension only: 45.6% (39.1-52.1%); combined EMS/hospital hypotension 57.6% (50.0-65.0%); (p < 0.0001). The aOR for death reflected the same progression: 1.0 (reference-no hypotension), 1.8 (1.39-2.33), 2.61 (1.73-3.94), and 4.36 (2.78-6.84), respectively. The proportion of subjects having hospital hypotension was 19.0% (16.5-21.7%) in those with EMS hypotension compared to 2.0% (1.8-2.3%) for those without (p < 0.0001). Additionally, the proportion of patients with TC hypotension was increased even with EMS "near hypotension" up to an SBP of 120 mmHg [(aOR 3.78 (2.97, 4.82)]. CONCLUSION: While patients with hypotension in the field or on arrival at the trauma center had markedly increased risk of death compared to those with no hypotension, those with prehospital hypotension that was not resolved before hospital arrival had, by far, the highest odds of death. Furthermore, TBI patients who had prehospital hypotension were five times more likely to arrive hypotensive at the trauma center than those who did not. Finally, even "near-hypotension" in the field was strongly and independently associated the risk of a hypotensive hospital arrival (<90 mmHg). These findings are supportive of the prehospital guidelines that recommend aggressive prevention and treatment of hypotension in major TBI.

Challenges of remotely witnessed emergencies - A case of international out-of-hospital cardiac arrest recognition via video call.

We present the first report, to our knowledge, of an Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) witnessed during a remote international video meeting. We report an emergency system activation and OHCA resuscitation initiated after an OHCA in a 41-year-old otherwise healthy female in Houston, Texas witnessed by a co-worker in Australia during a 1-on-1 Zoom video call. Remotely witnessed emergencies such as OHCA present unique challenges to successful cardiac resuscitation and will likely become significantly more common in the future as remote video calls increase.

Stroke Telemedicine for Arizona Rural Residents, the Legacy Telestroke Study.

Background: Efficacy of telemedicine for stroke was first established by the Stroke Team Remote Evaluation Using a Digital Observation Camera (STRokE DOC) trials in California and Arizona. Following these randomized controlled trials, the Stroke Telemedicine for Arizona Rural Residents (STARR) network was the first telestroke network to be established in Arizona. It consisted of a 7 spoke 1 hub telestroke system, and it was designed to serve rural, remote, or neurologically underserved communities. Objective: The objective of STARR was to establish a multicenter state-wide telestroke research network to determine the feasibility of prospective collection, recording, and regularly analysis of telestroke patient consultations and care data for the purposes of establishing quality measures, improvement, and benchmarking against other national and international telestroke programs. Methods: The STARR trial was open to enrollment for 29 months from 2008 to 2011. Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona served as the hub primary stroke center and its vascular neurologists provided emergency telestroke consultations to seven participating rural, remote, or underserved spoke community hospitals in Arizona. Eligibility criteria for activation of a telestroke alert and study enrollment were established. Consecutive patients exhibiting symptoms and signs of acute stroke within a 12 h window were enrolled, assessed, and treated by telemedicine. The state government sponsor, Arizona Department of Health Services' research grant covered the cost of acquisition, maintenance, and service of the selected telemedicine equipment as well as the professional telestroke services provided. The study deployed multiple telemedicine video cart systems, picture archive and communications systems software, and call management solutions. The STARR protocol was reviewed and approved by Mayo Clinic IRB, which served as the central IRB of record for all the participating hospitals, and the trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov. Results: The telestroke hotline was activated 537 times, and ultimately 443 subjects met criteria and consented to participate. The STARR successfully established a multicenter state-wide telestroke research network. The STARR developed a feasible and pragmatic approach to the prospective collection, storage, and analysis of telestroke patient consultations and care data for the purposes of establishing quality measures and tracking improvement. STARR benchmarked well against other national and international telestroke programs. STARR helped set the foundation for multiple regional and state telestroke networks and ultimately evolved into a national telestroke network. Conclusions: Multiple small and rurally located community hospitals and health systems can successfully collaborate with a more centrally located larger hospital center through telemedicine technologies to develop a coordinated approach to the assessment, diagnosis, and emergency treatment of patients manifesting symptoms and signs of an acute stroke syndrome. This model may serve well the needs of patients presenting with other time-sensitive medical emergencies.Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT00829361.

Optimal Out-of-Hospital Blood Pressure in Major Traumatic Brain Injury: A Challenge to the Current Understanding of Hypotension.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the out-of-hospital blood pressure ranges associated with optimal outcomes in traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Our objective was to evaluate the associations between out-of-hospital systolic blood pressure (SBP) and multiple hospital outcomes without assuming any predefined thresholds for hypotension, normotension, or hypertension. METHODS: This was a preplanned secondary analysis from the Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) TBI study. Among patients (age ≥10 years) with major TBIs (Barell Matrix type 1 and/or Abbreviated Injury Scale-head severity ≥3) and lowest out-of-hospital SBPs of 40 to 299 mmHg, we utilized generalized additive models to summarize the distributions of various outcomes as smoothed functions of SBP, adjusting for important and significant confounders. The subjects who were enrolled in the study phase after the out-of-hospital TBI guideline implementation were used to validate the models developed from the preimplementation cohort. RESULTS: Among 12,169 included cases, the mortality model revealed 3 distinct ranges: (1) a monotonically decreasing relationship between SBP and the adjusted probability of death from 40 to 130 mmHg, (2) lowest adjusted mortality from 130 to 180 mmHg, and (3) rapidly increasing mortality above 180 mmHg. A subanalysis of the cohorts with isolated TBIs and multisystem injuries with TBIs revealed SBP mortality patterns that were similar to each other and to that of the main analysis. While the specific SBP ranges varied somewhat for the nonmortality outcomes (hospital length of stay, ICU length of stay, discharge to skilled nursing/inpatient rehabilitation, and hospital charges), the patterns were very similar to that of mortality. In each model, validation was confirmed utilizing the postimplementation cohort. CONCLUSION: Optimal adjusted mortality was associated with a surprisingly high SBP range (130 to 180 mmHg). Below this level, there was no point or range of inflection that would indicate a physiologically meaningful threshold for defining hypotension. Nonmortality outcomes showed very similar patterns. These findings highlight how sensitive the injured brain is to compromised perfusion at SBP levels that, heretofore, have been considered adequate or even normal. While the study design does did not allow us to conclude that the currently recommended treatment threshold (<90 mmHg) should be increased, the findings imply that the definition of hypotension in the setting of TBI is too low. Randomized trials evaluating treatment levels significantly higher than 90 mmHg are needed.

Optimizing Physiology During Prehospital Airway Management: An NAEMSP Position Statement and Resource Document.

Airway management is a critical component of resuscitation but also carries the potential to disrupt perfusion, oxygenation, and ventilation as a consequence of airway insertion efforts, the use of medications, and the conversion to positive-pressure ventilation. NAEMSP recommends:Airway management should be approached as an organized system of care, incorporating principles of teamwork and operational awareness.EMS clinicians should prevent or correct hypoxemia and hypotension prior to advanced airway insertion attempts.Continuous physiological monitoring must be used during airway management to guide the timing of, limit the duration of, and inform decision making during advanced airway insertion attempts.Initial and ongoing confirmation of advanced airway placement must be performed using waveform capnography. Airway devices must be secured using a reliable method.Perfusion, oxygenation, and ventilation should be optimized before, during, and after advanced airway insertion.To mitigate aspiration after advanced airway insertion, EMS clinicians should consider placing a patient in a semi-upright position.When appropriate, patients undergoing advanced airway placement should receive suitable pharmacologic anxiolysis, amnesia, and analgesia. In select cases, the use of neuromuscular blocking agents may be appropriate.

Feasibility and outcomes from an integrated bridge treatment program for opioid use disorder.

OBJECTIVE: With a significant proportion of individuals with opioid use disorder not currently receiving treatment, it is critical to find novel ways to engage and retain patients in treatment. Our objective is to describe the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a program that used emergency physicians to initiate a bridge treatment, followed by peer support services, behavioral counseling, and ongoing treatment and follow-up. METHODS: We developed a program called the Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System (HEROES) that provides rapid access to board-certified emergency physicians for initiation of buprenorphine, plus at least 1 behavioral counseling session and 4 weekly peer support sessions over the course of 30 days. Follow-ups were conducted by phone and in person to obtain patient-reported outcomes. Primary outcomes included percentage of patients who completed the 30-day program and the percentage for successful linkage to more permanent ongoing treatment after the initial program. RESULTS: There were 324 participants who initiated treatment on buprenorphine from April 2018 to July 2019, with an average age of 36 (±9.6 years) and 52% of participants were males. At 30 days, 293/324 (90.43%) completed the program, and 203 of these (63%) were successfully connected to a subsequent community addiction medicine physician. There was a significant improvement (36%) in health-related quality of life. CONCLUSION: Lack of insurance is a predictor for treatment failure. Implementation of a multipronged treatment program is feasible and was associated with positive patient-reported outcomes. This approach holds promise as a strategy for engaging and retaining patients in treatment.

Suicide Among the Emergency Medical Systems Occupation in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Suicide claimed 47,173 lives in 2017 and is the second leading cause of death for individuals 15-34 years old. In 2017, rates of suicide in the United States (US) were double the rates of homicide. Despite significant research funding toward suicide prevention, rates of suicide have increased 38% from 2009 to 2017. Recent data suggests that emergency medical services (EMS) workers are at a higher risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts compared to the general public. The objective of this study was to determine the proportionate mortality ratio (PMR) of suicide among firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMT) compared to the general US working population. METHODS: We analyzed over five million adult decedent death records from the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database for 26 states over a 10-year non-consecutive period including 1999, 2003-2004, and 2007-2013. Categorizing firefighters and EMTs by census industry and occupation code lists, we used the underlying cause of death to calculate the PMRs compared to the general US decedent population with a recorded occupation. RESULTS: Overall, 298 firefighter and 84 EMT suicides were identified in our study. Firefighters died in significantly greater proportion from suicide compared to the US.working population with a PMR of 172 (95% confidence interval [CI], 153-193, P<0.01). EMTs also died from suicide in greater proportion with an elevated PMR of 124 (95% CI, 99-153), but this did not reach statistical significance. Among all subgroups, firefighters ages 65-90 were found to have the highest PMR of 234 (95% CI, 186-290), P<0.01) while the highest among EMTs was in the age group 18-64 with a PMR of 126 (95% CI, 100-156, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: In this multi-state study, we found that firefighters and EMTs had significantly higher proportionate mortality ratios for suicide compared to the general US working population. Firefighters ages 65-90 had a PMR more than double that of the general working population. Development of a more robust database is needed to identify EMS workers at greatest risk of suicide during their career and lifetime.

Prevalence and charges of opioid-related visits to U.S. emergency departments.

OBJECTIVE: An overwhelming responsibility for responding to the opioid epidemic falls on hospital emergency departments (ED). We sought to examine the overall prevalence rate and associated charges of opioid-related diagnoses and overdoses. Although charge data do not necessarily represent cost, they are proxy indicators of resource utilization and burden. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of the National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) dataset, the largest all-payer ED database in the United States. We queried using specific relevant ICD-10 codes to estimate the number of adult ED visits for both opioid poisonings and other opioid-related diagnoses during 2016 and 2017, which was the most recent publicly available data. Prevalence rates and financial charges were calculated by year and odds ratios were used to examine differences. RESULTS: Of approximately 234 million adult visits to EDs across 2016 and 2017, 2.88 million (1.23%) were related to opioids, with overdoses comprising nearly 27.5% and visits for other opioid-related diagnoses totaling 72.5%. As the primary diagnosis, opioids were responsible for 37% of all ED visits across both years. Total opioid-related visits for the two years accounted for $9.57 billion in ED charges, or $4.78 billion annually, with Medicaid and Medicare responsible for 66% of all charges. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: Approximately one of every 80 visits to the ED were opioid-related, leading to financial charges approaching $5 billion per year. Since both prevalence and the economic burden of opioid-related visits are high, targeted interventions to address this epidemic's impact on healthcare systems should be a national priority.

Effect of Implementing the Out-of-Hospital Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment Guidelines: The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care for Children Study (EPIC4Kids).

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We evaluate the effect of implementing the out-of-hospital pediatric traumatic brain injury guidelines on outcomes in children with major traumatic brain injury. METHODS: The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care for Children study is the preplanned secondary analysis of the Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care study, a multisystem, intention-to-treat study using a before-after controlled design. This subanalysis included children younger than 18 years who were transported to Level I trauma centers by participating out-of-hospital agencies between January 1, 2007, and June 30, 2015, throughout Arizona. The primary and secondary outcomes were survival to hospital discharge or admission for children with major traumatic brain injury and in 3 subgroups, defined a priori as those with moderate, severe, and critical traumatic brain injury. Outcomes in the preimplementation and postimplementation cohorts were compared with logistic regression, adjusting for risk factors and confounders. RESULTS: There were 2,801 subjects, 2,041 in preimplementation and 760 in postimplementation. The primary analysis (postimplementation versus preimplementation) yielded an adjusted odds ratio of 1.16 (95% confidence interval 0.70 to 1.92) for survival to hospital discharge and 2.41 (95% confidence interval 1.17 to 5.21) for survival to hospital admission. In the severe traumatic brain injury cohort (Regional Severity Score-Head 3 or 4), but not the moderate or critical subgroups, survival to discharge significantly improved after guideline implementation (adjusted odds ratio = 8.42; 95% confidence interval 1.01 to 100+). The improvement in survival to discharge among patients with severe traumatic brain injury who received positive-pressure ventilation did not reach significance (adjusted odds ratio = 9.13; 95% confidence interval 0.79 to 100+). CONCLUSION: Implementation of the pediatric out-of-hospital traumatic brain injury guidelines was not associated with improved survival when the entire spectrum of severity was analyzed as a whole (moderate, severe, and critical). However, both adjusted survival to hospital admission and discharge improved in children with severe traumatic brain injury, indicating a potential severity-based interventional opportunity for guideline effectiveness. These findings support the widespread implementation of the out-of-hospital pediatric traumatic brain injury guidelines.

A sentinel COVID-19 case in Houston, Texas: Informing frontline emergency department screening and preparedness.

In December 2019, a cluster of severe pneumonia cases of unknown cause was reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A novel strain of coronavirus belonging to the same family of viruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was identified. In February 2020, cases began being identified in the United States. We describe a sentinel COVID-19 patient in Houston, Texas, who first presented on March 1, 2020. The patient did not meet criteria for a Person Under Investigation (PUI) as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the time. This case has broad implications for emergency department screening and preparedness for COVID-19 and other future infectious diseases.

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest across the World: First report from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR).

BACKGROUND: Since development of the Utstein style recommendations for the uniform reporting of cardiac arrest, increasing numbers of national and regional out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) registries have been established worldwide. The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) created the Research and Registries Working Group and aimed to systematically report data collected from these registries. METHODS: We conducted two surveys of voluntarily participating national and regional registries. The first survey aimed to identify which core elements of the current Utstein style for OHCA were collected by each registry. The second survey collected descriptive summary data from each registry. We chose the data collected for the second survey based on the availability of core elements identified by the first survey. RESULTS: Seven national and four regional registries were included in the first survey and nine national and seven regional registries in the second survey. The estimated annual incidence of emergency medical services (EMS)-treated OHCA was 30.0-97.1 individuals per 100,000 population. The combined data showed the median age varied from 64 to 79 years and more than half were male in all 16 registries. The provision of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and bystander automated external defibrillator (AED) use was 19.1-79.0% in all registries and 2.0-37.4% among 11 registries, respectively. Survival to hospital discharge or 30-day survival after EMS-treated OHCA was 3.1-20.4% across all registries. Favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge or 30 days after EMS-treated OHCA was 2.8-18.2%. Survival to hospital discharge or 30-day survival after bystander-witnessed shockable OHCA ranged from 11.7% to 47.4% and favorable neurological outcome from 9.9% to 33.3%. CONCLUSION: This report from ILCOR describes data on systems of care and outcomes following OHCA from nine national and seven regional registries across the world. We found variation in reported survival outcomes and other core elements of the current Utstein style recommendations for OHCA across nations and regions.

Telecommunicator Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association.

Every year in the United States, >350 000 people have sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital environment. Sudden cardiac arrest is the unexpected loss of heart function, breathing, and consciousness and is commonly the result of an electric disturbance in the heart. Unfortunately, only ≈1 in 10 victims survives this dramatic event. Early access to 9-1-1 and early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are the first 2 links in the chain of survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Although 9-1-1 is frequently accessed, in the majority of cases, individuals with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest do not receive lay rescuer CPR and wait for the arrival of professional emergency rescuers. Telecommunicators are the true first responders and a critical link in the cardiac arrest chain of survival. In partnership with the 9-1-1 caller, telecommunicators have the first opportunity to identify a patient in cardiac arrest and provide initial care by delivering CPR instructions while quickly dispatching emergency medical services. The telecommunicator and the caller form a unique team in which the expertise of the telecommunicator is provided just in time to a willing caller, transforming the caller into a lay rescuer delivering CPR. The telecommunicator CPR (T-CPR) process, also previously described as dispatch CPR, dispatch-assisted CPR, or telephone CPR, represents an important opportunity to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest. Conversely, failure to provide T-CPR in this manner results in preventable harm. This statement describes the public health impact of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, provides guidance and resources to construct and maintain a T-CPR program, outlines the minimal acceptable standards for timely and high-quality delivery of T-CPR instructions, and identifies strategies to overcome common implementation barriers to T-CPR.

Prehospital Protocols Reducing Long Spinal Board Use Are Not Associated with a Change in Incidence of Spinal Cord Injury.

Introduction: Many emergency medical services (EMS) agencies have de-emphasized or eliminated the use of long spinal boards (LSB) for patients with possible spinal injury. We sought to determine if implementation of spinal motion restriction (SMR) protocols, which reduce LSB use, was associated with an increase in spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods: This retrospective observational study includes EMS encounters from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015 submitted by SMR-adopting ground-based agencies to a state EMS database with hospital discharge data. Encounters were excluded if SMR implementation date was unknown, occurred during a 3-month run-in period, or were duplicates. Study samples include patients with traumatic injury (TI), possible spinal trauma (P-ST), and verified spinal trauma (V-ST) using hospital discharge ICD-9/10 diagnosis codes. The incidence of SCI before and after implementation of SMR was compared using Chi-squared and logistic regression. Results: From 1,005,978 linked encounters, 104,315 unique encounters with traumatic injury and known SMR implementation date were identified with 51,199 cases of P-ST and 5,178 V-ST cases. The incidence of SCI in the pre-SMR and post-SMR interval for each group was: TI, 0.20% vs. 0.22% (p = 0.390); P-ST, 0.40% vs. 0.45% (p = 0.436); and V-ST, 4.04% vs. 4.37% (p = 0.561). Age and injury severity adjusted odds ratio of SCI in the highest risk cohort of patients with V-ST was 1.097 after SMR implementation (95% CI 0.818-1.472). Conclusion: In this limited study, no change in the incidence of SCI was identified following implementation of SMR protocols. Prospective evaluation of this question is necessary to evaluate the safety of SMR protocols.

Effect of team-based cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for emergency medical service providers on pre-hospital return of spontaneous circulation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess whether team-based cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training for emergency medical service (EMS) providers improved the pre-hospital return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) rates of non-traumatic adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. METHODS: This was a before-and-after study an evaluating educational intervention for community EMS providers, which was conducted in Gyeonggi province, South Korea. Team-based CPR training was conducted from January to March 2016 for every level 1 and level 2 EMS provider in the study area. Non-traumatic EMS treated OHCA patients from July to December 2015 and from July to December 2016 were enrolled and used for the analysis. The primary outcome was pre-hospital ROSC rates before and after the training period. A multivariable logistic regression model with an interaction term (period × dispatch type) was used to determine the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) according to the dispatch type (single vs. multi-tiered). RESULTS: Of the 2125 OHCA cases included, 1072 (50.4%) and 1053 (49.6%) were categorized in the before- and after-training groups, respectively, and the pre-hospital ROSC rates were 6.6% and 12.6%, respectively. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, the aOR for pre-hospital ROSC was 2.07 (95% CI, 1.32-3.25) in the after-training period. In the interaction model (period × type of dispatch), the aORs for pre-hospital ROSC were 2.00 (95% CI, 1.01-3.98) and 2.13 (95% CI, 1.20-3.79) in the single- and multi-tiered dispatch groups, respectively, during the after-training period. CONCLUSION: Team-based CPR training for EMS providers in a large community EMS system improved the pre-hospital ROSC rates of OHCA patients.

Association of Statewide Implementation of the Prehospital Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment Guidelines With Patient Survival Following Traumatic Brain Injury: The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) Study.

Importance: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a massive public health problem. While evidence-based guidelines directing the prehospital treatment of TBI have been promulgated, to our knowledge, no studies have assessed their association with survival. Objective: To evaluate the association of implementing the nationally vetted, evidence-based, prehospital treatment guidelines with outcomes in moderate, severe, and critical TBI. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) Study included more than 130 emergency medical services systems/agencies throughout Arizona. This was a statewide, multisystem, intention-to-treat study using a before/after controlled design with patients with moderate to critically severe TBI (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Barell Matrix-Type 1 and/or Abbreviated Injury Scale Head region severity ≥3) transported to trauma centers between January 1, 2007, and June 30, 2015. Data were analyzed between October 25, 2017, and February 22, 2019. Interventions: Implementation of the prehospital TBI guidelines emphasizing avoidance/treatment of hypoxia, prevention/correction of hyperventilation, and avoidance/treatment of hypotension. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary: survival to hospital discharge; secondary: survival to hospital admission. Results: Of the included patients, the median age was 45 years, 14 666 (67.1%) were men, 7181 (32.9%) were women; 16 408 (75.1% ) were white, 1400 (6.4%) were Native American, 743 (3.4% ) were Black, 237 (1.1%) were Asian, and 2791 (12.8%) were other race/ethnicity. Of the included patients, 21 852 met inclusion criteria for analysis (preimplementation phase [P1]: 15 228; postimplementation [P3]: 6624). The primary analysis (P3 vs P1) revealed an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 1.06 (95% CI, 0.93-1.21; P = .40) for survival to hospital discharge. The aOR was 1.70 (95% CI, 1.38-2.09; P < .001) for survival to hospital admission. Among the severe injury cohorts (but not moderate or critical), guideline implementation was significantly associated with survival to discharge (Regional Severity Score-Head 3-4: aOR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.52-2.72; P < .001; Injury Severity Score 16-24: aOR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.07-2.48; P = .02). This was also true for survival to discharge among the severe, intubated subgroups (Regional Severity Score-Head 3-4: aOR, 3.14; 95% CI, 1.65-5.98; P < .001; Injury Severity Score 16-24: aOR, 3.28; 95% CI, 1.19-11.34; P = .02). Conclusions and Relevance: Statewide implementation of the prehospital TBI guidelines was not associated with significant improvement in overall survival to hospital discharge (across the entire, combined moderate to critical injury spectrum). However, adjusted survival doubled among patients with severe TBI and tripled in the severe, intubated cohort. Furthermore, guideline implementation was significantly associated with survival to hospital admission. These findings support the widespread implementation of the prehospital TBI treatment guidelines. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01339702.