Utility of opening rhythms in predicting time to return of spontaneous circulation in cardiac arrest victims in a resource constrained setting: a single centre prospective observational study

Background: Time to ROSC has been shown to be an important and independent predictor of mortality and adverse neurological outcome. In resource limited situations judicious deployment of resources is crucial. Prognostication of arrest victims may aid in better resource allocation. This study aimed to assess the time to Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) in cardiac arrest victims and its relationship with opening rhythms.Methods: Consecutive victims of cardiopulmonary arrest who presented to a single center were included in this study if they met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Time at which opening rhythm was analyzed and time at which ROSC was achieved was noted. This was done for all cases and mean time to ROSC was calculated for each opening rhythm. All those patients who achieved ROSC were followed up till hospital discharge or death. Primary outcome measured was achievement of ROSC and the secondary outcome was the survival to hospital discharge.Results: A sample size of 100 was calculated to yield a significance criterion of 0.05 and a power of 0.80 based on prior studies. Out of 100 patients studied. 58% had shockable rhythms and 42% had non-shockable rhythms. Mean time to ROSC for shockable rhythm was 5.55±3.51 minutes, and for non-shockable rhythm is 17.29±4.18 minutes. There was a statistically significant difference between opening rhythms in terms of survival to hospital discharge (p=0.0329).Conclusions: Cardiac arrests with shockable rhythms attained ROSC faster when compared to nonshockable rhythms. Shockable rhythms have a better survival to hospital discharge when compared to shockable rhythms. Opening rhythms may aid the clinician in better utility of resources in a resource constrained setting.