Dataset Information

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

In addition to the directly attributed mortality, COVID-19 is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this systematic review, we investigate the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Methods

We searched PubMed, BioMedCentral, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for studies comparing out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring during the pandemic and a non-pandemic period. Risk of bias was assessed with the ROBINS-I tool. The primary endpoint was return of spontaneous circulation. Secondary endpoints were bystander-initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation, survival to hospital discharge, and survival with favourable neurological outcome.

Results

We identified six studies. In two studies, rates of return of spontaneous circulation and survival to hospital discharge decreased significantly during the pandemic. Especially in Europe, bystander-witnessed cases, bystander-initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation and resuscitation attempted by emergency medical services were reduced during the pandemic. Also, ambulance response times were significantly delayed across all studies and patients presenting with non-shockable rhythms increased in two studies. In 2020, 3.9-5.9% of tested patients were SARS-CoV-2 positive and 4.8-26% had suggestive symptoms (fever and cough or dyspnoea).

Conclusions

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests had worse short-term outcomes during the pandemic than a non-pandemic period suggesting direct effects of COVID-19 infection and indirect effects from lockdown and disruption of healthcare systems. Patients at high risk of deterioration should be identified outside the hospital to promptly initiate treatment and reduce fatalities. Study registration PROSPERO CRD42020195794.

SUBMITTER: Scquizzato T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7598542 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: A systematic review.

Scquizzato Tommaso T Landoni Giovanni G Paoli Andrea A Lembo Rosalba R Fominskiy Evgeny E Kuzovlev Artem A Likhvantsev Valery V Zangrillo Alberto A

Resuscitation 20201029

<h4>Introduction</h4>In addition to the directly attributed mortality, COVID-19 is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this systematic review, we investigate the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.<h4>Methods</h4>We searched PubMed, BioMedCentral, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for studies comparing out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring during the pandemic and a non-pandemic period. Risk of bias was assessed ...[more]

PMID: 33130157

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Project description:ImportanceOut-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) health care provision may be a good indicator of the recovery of the health care system involved in OHCA care following the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a lack of data regarding outcomes capable of verifying this recovery.ObjectiveTo determine whether return to spontaneous circulation, overall survival, and survival with good neurological outcome increased in patients with OHCA since the COVID-19 pandemic was brought under control in 2022 compared with prepandemic and pandemic levels.Design, setting, and participantsThis observational cohort study was conducted to examine health care response and survival with good neurological outcome at hospital discharge in patients treated following OHCA. A 3-month period, including the first wave of the pandemic (February 1 to April 30, 2020), was compared with 2 periods before (April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018) and after (January 1 to December 31, 2022) the pandemic. Data analysis was performed in July 2023. Emergency medical services (EMS) serving a population of more than 28 million inhabitants across 10 Spanish regions participated. Patients with OHCA were included if participating EMS initiated resuscitation or continued resuscitation initiated by a first responder.ExposureThe pandemic was considered to be under control following the official declaration that infection with SARS-CoV-2 was to be considered another acute respiratory infection.Main outcome and measuresThe main outcomes were return of spontaneous circulation, overall survival, and survival at hospital discharge with good neurological outcome, expressed as unimpaired or minimally impaired cerebral performance.ResultsA total of 14 732 patients (mean [SD] age, 64.2 [17.2] years; 10 451 [71.2%] male) were included, with 6372 OHCAs occurring during the prepandemic period, 1409 OHCAs during the pandemic period, and 6951 OHCAs during the postpandemic period. There was a higher incidence of OHCAs with a resuscitation attempt in the postpandemic period compared with the pandemic period (rate ratio, 4.93; 95% CI, 4.66-5.22; P < .001), with lower incidence of futile resuscitation for OHCAs (2.1 per 100 000 person-years vs 1.3 per 100 000 person-years; rate ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.71-0.92; P < .001). Recovery of spontaneous circulation at hospital admission increased from 20.5% in the pandemic period to 30.5% in the postpandemic period (relative risk [RR], 1.08; 95% CI, 1.06-1.10; P < .001). In the same way, overall survival at discharge increased from 7.6% to 11.2% (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.21-1.75; P < .001), with 6.6% of patients being discharged with good neurological status (Cerebral Performance Category Scale categories 1-2) in the pandemic period compared with 9.6% of patients in the postpandemic period (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.04-1.10; P < .001).Conclusions and relevanceIn this cohort study, survival with good neurological outcome at hospital discharge following OHCA increased significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project description:BackgroundThough variable, many major metropolitan cities reported profound and unprecedented increases in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in early 2020. This study examined the relative magnitude of those increases and their relationship to COVID-19 prevalence.MethodsEMS (9-1-1 system) medical directors for 50 of the largest U.S. cities agreed to provide the aggregate, de-identified, pre-existing monthly tallies of OHCA among adults (age >18 years) occurring between January and June 2020 within their respective jurisdictions. Identical comparison data were also provided for corresponding time periods in 2018 and 2019. Equivalent data were obtained from the largest cities in Italy, United Kingdom and France, as well as Perth, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.FindingsSignificant OHCA escalations generally paralleled local prevalence of COVID-19. During April, most U.S. cities (34/50) had >20% increases in OHCA versus 2018-2019 which reflected high local COVID-19 prevalence. Thirteen observed 1·5-fold increases in OHCA and three COVID-19 epicenters had >100% increases (2·5-fold in New York City). Conversely, cities with lesser COVID-19 impact observed unchanged (or even diminished) OHCA numbers. Altogether (n = 50), on average, OHCA cases/city rose 59% during April (p = 0·03). By June, however, after mitigating COVID-19 spread, cities with the highest OHCA escalations returned to (or approached) pre-COVID OHCA numbers while cities minimally affected by COVID-19 during April (and not experiencing OHCA increases), then had marked OHCA escalations when COVID-19 began to surge locally. European, Australian, and New Zealand cities mirrored the U.S. experience.InterpretationMost metropolitan cities experienced profound escalations of OHCA generally paralleling local prevalence of COVID-19. Most of these patients were pronounced dead without COVID-19 testing.FundingNo funding was involved. Cities provided de-identified aggregate data collected routinely for standard quality assurance functions.

Project description:Background & purposePandemics such as COVID-19 can lead to severe shortages in healthcare resources, requiring the development of evidence-based Crisis Standard of Care (CSC) protocols. A protocol that limits the resuscitation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) to events that are more likely to result in a positive outcome can lower hospital burdens and reduce emergency medical services resources and infection risk, although it would come at the cost of lives lost that could otherwise be saved. Our primary objective was to evaluate candidate OHCA CSC protocols involving known predictors of survival and identify the protocol that results in the smallest resource burden, as measured by the number of hospitalizations required per favorable OHCA outcome achieved. Our secondary objective was to describe the effects of the CSC protocols in terms of health outcomes and other measures of resource burden.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients in the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) database. Non-traumatic OHCA events from 2018 were included (n = 79,533). Candidate CSC protocols involving combinations of known predictors of good survival for OHCA were applied to the existing dataset to measure the resulting numbers of resuscitation attempts, transportations to hospital, hospital admissions, and favorable neurological outcomes. These outcomes were also assessed under Standard Care, defined as no CSC protocol applied to the data.ResultsThe CSC protocol with the smallest number of hospitalizations per survivor with a favorable neurological outcome was that an OHCA resuscitation should only be attempted if the arrest was witnessed by emergency medical services or the first monitored rhythm was shockable (number of hospitalizations: 2.26 [95% CI: 2.21-2.31] vs. 3.46 [95% CI: 3.39-3.53] under Standard Care). This rule resulted in significant reductions in resource utilization (46.1% of hospitalizations and 29.2% of resuscitation attempts compared to Standard Care) while still preserving 70.5% of the favorable neurological outcomes under Standard Care. For every favorable neurological outcome lost under this CSC protocol, 6.3 hospital beds were made free that could be used to treat other patients.ConclusionIn a pandemic scenario, pre-hospital CSC protocols that might not otherwise be considered have the potential to greatly improve overall survival, and this study provides an evidence-based approach towards selecting such a protocol. As this study was performed using data generated before the COVID-19 pandemic, future studies incorporating pandemic-era data will further help develop evidence-based CSC protocols.

Project description:AimThe COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations throughout the country. Some studies described variation in total volume of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) during the pandemic. We aimed to describe the changes in volume and characteristics of OHCA patients and resuscitations in one urban EMS system.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort analysis of all recorded atraumatic OHCA in Marion County, Indiana, from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 and from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. We described patient, arrest, EMS response, and survival characteristics. We performed paired and unpaired t-tests to evaluate the changes in those characteristics during COVID-19 as compared to the prior year. Data were matched by month to control for seasonal variation.ResultsThe total number of arrests increased from 884 in 2019 to 1034 in 2020 (p = 0.016). Comparing 2019 to 2020, there was little difference in age [median 62 (IQR 59-73) and 60 (IQR 47-72), p = 0.086], gender (38.5% and 39.8% female, p = 0.7466, witness to arrest (44.3% and 39.6%, p = 0.092), bystander AED use (10.1% and 11.4% p = 0.379), bystander CPR (48.7% and 51.4%, p = 0.242). Patients with a shockable initial rhythm (19.2% and 15.4%, p = 0.044) both decreased in 2020, and response time increased by 18 s [6.0 min (IQR 4.5-7.7) and 6.3 min (IQR 4.7-8.0), p = 0.008]. 47.7% and 54.8% (p = 0.001) of OHCA patients died in the field, 19.7% and 19.3% (p = 0.809) died in the Emergency Department, 21.8% and 18.5% (p = 0.044) died in the hospital, 10.8% and 7.4% (p = 0.012) were discharged from the hospital, and 9.3% and 5.9% (p = 0.005) were discharged with Cerebral Performance Category score ≤ 2.ConclusionTotal OHCA increased during the COVID-19 pandemic when compared with the prior year. Although patient characteristics were similar, initial shockable rhythm, and proportion of patients who died in the hospital decreased during the pandemic. Further investigation will explore etiologies of those findings.

Dataset Information

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: A systematic review.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: A systematic review.

Similar Datasets

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