National Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Register

 Project – Learning from the first 200 cases

Ms. Siobhán Masterson, Dr. Peter Wright, Mr. Pauric Sheerin, Prof. Andrew Murphy 
and Dr. Geoff King

Department of Public Health Medicine North West Regional Ambulance Service; National University of Ireland, Galway, Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council

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Introduction

• OHCAR was established in November 2007 in accordance with the recommendations of the Report of the Task Force on Sudden Cardiac Death[1]
• The OHCAR project is carried out in collaboration with the NW Public Health Department, NUI Galway and PHECC.
• It is currently in operation in the North West and Midlands with plans to expand nationally.

Aims and Objectives

• The purpose of OHCAR is to gather information on out of-hospital cardiac arrests attended by the Emergency Medical Services in which resuscitation is attempted.

Methodology

• OHCAR data is collected from ambulance Patient Care Reports, incident call logs, hospital & GP records
• Data is collected using the Utstein template[2] to allow international comparison.

Headline Results from the First 200 cases

• The arrest was witnessed in more than two thirds of cases
• Most incident’s occur in patients’ homes (60%)
• Almost one third of patients were in a shockable rhythm at time of first rhythm analysis
• Less than half of patients received assistance prior to thearrival of the ambulance service
• Thirteen patients (6.5%) survived to hospital discharge.

Key Messages

• The event is witnessed and occurs in a public place
• The patient is in a shockable rhythm at time of first rhythm analysis
• Bystander CPR is performed if a defibrillator is not immediately available
• Defibrillation is performed within eight minutes of call for help regardless of who performs it.