Cardiac Arrest Bundle of cARE Trial

An out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a sudden event where the heart stops beating and a person becomes unresponsive. During this event, vital organs in the body receive no blood flow, causing them to shut down. Without intervention to restart the heart, a person effectively dies. In the UK, around 60,000 people experience cardiac arrests each year, with most occurring at home. Despite prompt emergency service response, survival rates are typically low.

There is technology available that has the potential to improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. The intervention involves three devices used together: head-up position CPR (Elegard), active compression-decompression mechanical CPR (Lucas-3), and the Impedance Threshold device (Resqpod-16). When combined, these devices can enhance blood flow during resuscitation, potentially leading to improved initial resuscitation rates and higher rates of survival with normal brain function after a cardiac arrest.

A pilot study is planned to test the feasibility of using these devices. The results will inform the design of a larger study to determine if this technology can indeed improve survival rates in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.