Abstract 11816: Sustained Ventricular Fibrillation During CPR As the Strongest Predictor for the Favorable Neurological Outcomes in Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients; the Multicenter Prospective Study of SAVE-J

Introduction: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) has been reported to be effective in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients in whom ventricular fibrillation (VF) as an initial rhythm were refractory to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, it remains unclear whether ECPR is effective even though cardiac rhythm would change from VF to non-VF during CPR. Methods: This multicenter prospective observational study was conducted in 46 hospitals. A total of 457 patients with OHCA aged 20-74 years in whom initial rhythm was VF and the duration from collapse to hospital arrival was within 45 minutes were originally registered. After given CPR for more than 15 minutes in hospital, these patients received combination therapy with ECPR including therapeutic hypothermia (TH), or not received. The patients underwent ECPR (n=250) were classified into the following 2 groups according to rhythm changes during CPR; Group-A (sustained VF; n=127) and Group-B (changing from VF initially to non-shockable rhythm; n=123). The endpoint was a favorable outcome defined as Cerebral Performance Category 1-2 at 6 months after collapse. Results: There were no significant differences of age, sex, time from collapse to ECPR start and the rate of TH between the 2 groups. The rate achieving favorable outcome was significantly higher in Group-A than Group-B. (19.7% vs. 3.3%, p<0.001) (Figure1). When focusing on sustained VF (Group-A), the rate achieving favorable outcome improved about 5.5-fold by ECPR (ECPR, n=127; 19.7% vs. non-ECPR, n=55; 3.6%, p<0.001) (Figure2). In the multivariate logistic-regression analysis, sustained VF during CPR was the strongest predictor for the favorable outcomes among the pre-hospital parameters including age, bystander CPR and time from collapse to ECPR (Odds ratio 4.43, p=0.018). Conclusions: These findings indicates that the patients with sustained VF seem to be a particular population that could merit ECPR.