The following is a summary of “Bystander basic life support and survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A propensity score matching analysis,” published in the May 2023 issue of Emergency Medicine by Lafrance, et al.

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) requires prompt action for a chance of survival, including early recognition, calling for emergency medical assistance, and early initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, bystander rates of initiating basic life support (BLS) remained low. For a study, researchers sought to assess the association between bystander BLS and survival following OHCA.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the French National OHCA Registry (RéAC) from July 2011 to September 2021. The study included all OHCA cases of medical origin treated by a mobile intensive care unit (MICU). Cases involving on-duty firefighters, paramedics, or emergency physicians as bystanders were excluded. Patient characteristics were compared between those who received bystander BLS and those who did not. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed to create matched groups. Conditional logistic regression analysis examined the potential association between bystander BLS and survival.

The study included 52,303 patients, of whom 29,412 (56.2%) received bystander BLS. The 30-day survival rates were significantly higher in the BLS group (7.6%) compared to the no-BLS group (2.5%) (P < 0.001). After matching, bystander BLS remained associated with a greater 30-day survival rate (odds ratio [OR] [95% CI] = 1.77 [1.58–1.98]). Bystander BLS was also associated with increased short-term survival, with a higher likelihood of being alive upon hospital admission (OR [95% CI] = 1.29 [1.23–1.36]).

Bystander BLS was significantly associated with a 77% higher likelihood of 30-day survival following OHCA. Given the low rate of bystander BLS initiation, it was crucial to emphasize life-saving training for the general public.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675723000980