Survival to Discharge After Cardiac Arrest Attended by a Doctor–Paramedic Helicopter Emergency Medical Service: An Utstein-style Multiservice Review of 1085 Activations

BackgroundThe presentation of outcomes after cardiac arrest presented by emergency medical service and in-hospital teams in the Utstein style allows for comparative analysis of populations and systems. Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) and the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) are doctor-plus-paramedic prehospital care teams that respond to a large number of medical cardiac arrests.ObjectiveTo report the outcomes of medical cardiac arrests according to the Utstein style.MethodsRetrospective database analysis and hospital follow-up of all cardiac arrests attended by either service over a 31-month period. Traumatic cardiac arrests were excluded. Primary outcome: survival and cerebral performance category at discharge from the hospital.ResultsThere were 429 patients attended by the two services; 193 patients achieved return of spontaneous circulation, which was sustained at the time of handover to the hospital team. Of 140 patients for whom complete follow-up was available, the overall survival rate was 50.7%, 86% of whom had a Cerebral Performance Category of 1 or 2. The overall survival-to-discharge rate for all patients attended was 11.7%.ConclusionBenchmarking of performance is essential to understand reasons for variability, and to allow individual systems to reflect on their own practices. We have described 31 months of data that pertain to medical cardiac arrest cases attended by our services and demonstrated a comparable survival rate to discharge with good neurological outcome.