Perishock Pause: An Independent Predictor of Survival From Out-of-Hospital Shockable Cardiac Arrest.
Cheskes S, Schmicker RH, Christenson J, Salcido DD, Rea T, Powell J, Edelson DP, Sell R, May S, Menegazzi JJ, Van Ottingham L, Olsufka M, Pennington S, Simonini J, Berg RA, Stiell I, Idris A, Bigham B, Morrison L; on behalf of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) Investigators. Circulation. 2011 Jul 5;124(1):58-66.
Among patients with shockable cardiac arrest, a delay of 20 seconds or more between stopping chest compression and the defibrillatory shock was associated with lower odds of survival to hospital discharge. Furthermore, a perishock pause (before and after shock) of 40 seconds or more was also related to lower odds of survival to hospital discharge among patients with shockable cardiac arrest. Changes to emergency response education and technologies that focus on reducing perishock pauses may have a considerable impact on survival outcomes.