J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2011 Dec;22(6):599-604.

Validation of Termination Guidelines for Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Korea

• Eun JG
• Sim MS
• Song KJ
• Kwon MK
• Park SH
• Shin JS
• Kim MJ
• Chung SP
• Lee HS

Abstract

PURPOSE
There have been no studies on the termination of resuscitation (TOR) in Korea. We retrospectively applied TOR rules to OHCA patient data in order to validate the BLS and ALS TOR rules for Korea.
METHODS
We collected OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest) data from 3 hospitals for the period January 1 to December 31, 2009. We then retrospectively applied BLS and ALS TOR rules to this data. We measured both the specificity and positive predictive value for each BLS and ALS TOR rule.
RESULTS
The overall rate of survival until hospital discharge was 14.5%. Out of 102 patients who met BLS criteria TOR rules, 8 patients survived until hospital discharge. Out of 52 patients who met ALS criteria TOR rules, 4 patients survived until hospital discharge. The BLS rule had a specificity of 0.57 and a positive predictive value of 0.92. The ALS rule had a specificity of 0.78 and a positive predictive value of 0.92.
CONCLUSION
In this study, the BLS and ALS TOR rules had relatively low positive predictive value and were not applicable to patients with low survival probability in Korea.

Keyword

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Termination of resuscitation; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

MeSH Terms

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Humans
Korea
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Resuscitation
Retrospective Studies
Sensitivity and Specificity