Resuscitation After Cardiac Surgery Awareness an Egyptian Multicentre Survey
Authors: Abdelghafar Moslem , Abdelmoneim Taher , Mohamed Alaa , Abdalla Mohamed 
Published: October 2021

Introduction

There has been an increasing recognition that cardiac surgery patients have different resuscitative needs than other medical and surgical patients who experience in-hospital cardiac arrest. This was addressed in the 2010 European Resuscitation Council Guidelines and the 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines. However, it’s unknown how widely the guidelines are practiced, or a training protocol is followed in different units in Egypt.

Objectives

This national survey aims to identify the views and common practice of Egyptian cardiac teams regarding resuscitation after cardiac surgery.

Methods

A 21-question survey is created based on a prior survey used by the EACTS guidelines committee. Questions included the following topics: Participants demographics, Prevalence of cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit, Cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation or non-shockable rhythm, Emergency resternotomy technique, Training and arrest protocols.

Survey dissemination was through social media platforms, mobile messaging applications and emails during the time period between November 2020 and January 2021.

Results

Of 126 responses, 95 were suitable for inclusion. Responses were from 11 centres across Egypt. 68.5% of the respondents were surgeons while cardiac anaesthetists and intensivists formed 12.6% and 18.9% respectively. 76.8% of participants were middle-grade doctors, consultant participation was 23.2%.

The median annual number of cases performed in the units was 480 and this ranged from 10 to 3000. The average percentage of cardiac arrests was 7%, Median survival to hospital discharge of all arrests was 33%

For patients who go into VF after cardiac surgery, respondents would attempt a mean of 5 shocks with only 24.2% commencing defibrillation shocks before external cardiac massage, while the majority initiating CPR immediately. They would perform emergency resternotomy in a mean time of 12 mins and in 15 mins if the rhythm was not shockable. 56.8% would give 1 mg of adrenaline as soon the cardiac arrest was established, only 6.3% thought that it should be given rarely or not at all.

If a surgeon was not immediately available 36.8% of respondents would be happy for any trained personnel to perform the emergency resternotomy while 58.9% expect only the surgeon to perform the resternotomy.

49.4% of the participants have not practised any training to perform an emergency sternotomy. 41% of the respondents state they occasionally practice or talk with the staff about it. Only 9.5% practice regularly on emergency sternotomies. 25% assume current training is enough and does not need modification, while 75% think tailored training is important and staff should be oriented about it in the future.

Conclusion

An action plan is required to improve the awareness of the junior surgeons with the Cardiac Advanced Life Support Protocol. Proper training of the intensive care staff to implement the protocol in a timely organised manner is needed. Assessment of the rhythm before starting external chest compressions is the corner stone in cardiac patients undergoing cardiac arrest. VF/pVT rhythm, 3 defibrillation shocks are given first; for the non- shockable rhythm, the emergency pacing switched on, this is followed by compressions till resternomtomy. Emergency resternotomy under 5 minutes is the only effective way to save patients with tamponade and extreme hypovolemia.