Usefulness of the Evaluation of the ROSC With Carotid Ultrasound During CPR

Overview

The current cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR) guidelines recommend that the heart rhythm be checked every two minutes during CPR for cardiac arrest patients. Also it is very important to stop compressing the chest in less than 10 seconds when checking heart rhythm and pulse. However, manual palpation, which is used as a standard for return of spontaneous circulation(ROSC), has been reported that the accuracy is not high in several studies. It is quite often necessary to perform pulse palpation for longer than the 10 second recommended by the guidelines to make a judgment. Recently, a case study was published in which the presence of spontaneous circulation was confirmed by evaluating the carotid artery compressibility and pulsatility with an ultrasound probe when checking the rhythm of cardiac arrest patients. However, there has been no clinical study on actual cardiac arrest patients.

The current cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR) guidelines recommend that the heart rhythm be checked every two minutes during CPR for cardiac arrest patients. Also it is very important to stop compressing the chest in less than 10 seconds when checking heart rhythm and pulse. However, manual palpation, which is used as a standard for return of spontaneous circulation(ROSC), has been reported that the accuracy is not high in several studies. It is quite often necessary to perform pulse palpation for longer than the 10 second recommended by the guidelines to make a judgment. Ultrasound is a key technique that guides to discern and treat causes of cardiac arrest patients. Recently, a case study was published in which the presence of spontaneous circulation was confirmed by evaluating the carotid artery compressibility and pulsatility with an ultrasound probe when checking the rhythm of cardiac arrest patients. However, this is just a case study. There has been no clinical study on actual cardiac arrest patients whether it is possible to accurately determine the ROSC by evaluating the carotid artery compressibility and pulsatility by ultrasound. Also there has been no clinical studies on actual cardiac arrest patients comparing the time taken to evaluate the ROSC of carotid ultrasound and manual palpation.