Out-of-Hospital Unwitnessed Cardiopulmonary Collapse and No-Bystander CPR: A Practical Addition to Resuscitation Termination Guidelines

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provides possible survival from otherwise fatal cardiopulmonary collapse. Termination guidelines have been developed for use when resuscitation has no potential benefit for a victim. The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to determine if unwitnessed collapse combined with no-bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation would support a decision to terminate attempted resuscitation. There were 541 patients analyzed during 6 months, with functional neurological survival the outcome of interest. There were no functional neurological survivors at hospital discharge among the 180 victims in the unwitnessed, no-bystander CPR subgroup (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.0%–2.1%). Functional neurological survival for witnessed collapse, bystander CPR was 6.0% (95% CI 2.8%–12.5%), for witnessed collapse, no-bystander CPR was 3.8% (95% CI 1.9%–7.7%), and for unwitnessed collapse, bystander CPR 1.3% (95% CI 0.2%–6.9%). With confirmation by further studies, unwitnessed collapse and lack of bystander CPR may be a practical addition to resuscitation termination guidelines.