Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 105, August 2016, Pages 182-187
Resuscitation

Clinical paper
A text message alert system for trained volunteers improves out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.06.006Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Aims

The survival rate of sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) increases by early notification of Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) and early application of basic life support (BLS) techniques and defibrillation. A Text Message (TM) alert system for trained volunteers in the community was implemented in the Netherlands to reduce response times. The aim of this study was to assess if this system improves survival after OHCA.

Methods and Results

From April 2012 to April 2014 data on all 1546 emergency calls for OHCA in the Dutch province of Limburg were collected according to the Utstein template. On site resuscitation attempts for presumed cardiac arrest were made in 833 cases, of which the TM-alert system was activated in 422 cases. Two cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) scenarios were compared: 1. TM-alert system was activated but no responders attended (n = 131), and 2. TM-alert system was activated with attendance of ≥1 responder(s) (n = 291). Survival to hospital discharge was 16.0% in scenario 1 and 27.1% in scenario 2 corresponding with OR = 1.95 (95% CI 1.15–3.33; P = .014). After adjustment for potential confounders the odds ratio increased (OR = 2.82; 95% CI 1.52–5.24; P = .001). Of the 100 survivors, 92% were discharged from the hospital to their home with no or limited neurological sequelae.

Conclusion

The TM-alert system is effective in increasing survival to hospital discharge in OHCA victims and the degree of disability or dependence after survival is low.

Keywords

Survival
OHCA
Community responder

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A Spanish translated version of the summary of this article appears as Appendix in the final online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.06.006.