ALS by physicians linked to increased survival

Editor's Note

In patients with traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) after traffic collisions, advanced life support (ALS) performed by physicians was associated with increased chance of 1-month survival compared with ALS or basic life support (BLS) performed by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, this Japanese study finds.

Of 4,328 patients analyzed, 96 (2.2%) survived 1 month after OHCA, including:

• 26 of 828 (3.1%) who received ALS by physicians
• 25 of 1,591 (1.6%) who received ALS by EMS personnel
• 45 of 1,963 (2.3%) who received BLS only.

ALS by physicians also was associated with increased chance of favorable neurologic outcomes compared with ALS by EMS personnel. There was no difference in neurologic outcomes between ALS by physician and BLS.

The findings show that physicians should probably be involved in prehospital ALS in traumatic OHCA cases, the authors say.