What is it about?
CPR is one of the main ways to help someone experiencing cardiac arrest. Usually, patients are unconscious and treatment can proceed without interruptions. Due to ongoing improvements in CPR, however, it's possible to restore blood flow to a level that allows patients to wake up during treatment, even without their heart restarting on its own. Once CPR stops, consciousness is lost again.
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Why is it important?
CPR-induced consciousness (CPR-IC) can interfere with rescue efforts and may lead to psychological trauma in both patients and clinicians. Currently, there are no agreed-upon guidelines on the best approach to manage this in the out-of-hospital setting. More knowledge is therefore required.
Perspectives
CPR-IC has the potential to be a terrifying and confusing experience for patients, clinicians, and bystanders. It is important to raise awareness and increase knowledge of this growing phenomenon so that rescuers can understand its presentation and management, and patient care is not impacted. We look forward to presenting an outline of the existing literature in our upcoming Scoping Review.
Dr Lucymarie Silvestri
Flinders University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: CPR-induced consciousness (CPR-IC) out-of-hospital care: a scoping review protocol, International Paramedic Practice, May 2023, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/ippr.2023.13.2.27.
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