Edinburgh Cardiac Arrest Symposium 2014
Tuesday, 01 April, 2014
The second Edinburgh Cardiac Arrest Symposium, hosted by the Resuscitation Research Group, was held on Thursday, March 27th at the University of Edinburgh. Nearly 300 delegates from across the UK attended to hear a world-class speaker line-up with a further 200 sites around the world registered to watch the speakers via live webcast. Questions were posted to the speakers live from the floor and online via Twitter.
Gareth Clegg, Resuscitation Research Group Lead, opened the day with an inspiring and thought-provoking talk on the need for cultural change to improve survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
Highlighting the importance of local implementation of the Chain of Survival, Jerry Overton presented on the importance of ambulance dispatch for OHCA, stressing the need for accurate, rapid diagnosis, early telephone-guided CPR and getting the right resources to the patient at the right time.
Mark Whitbread from London Ambulance Service gave an update on utilising advanced paramedics in early, post-ROSC care, emphasising the importance of accurate ventilation, cardiac support and triage to an appropriate specialist centre.
A plenary on mechanical CPR provoked excellent debate with Lars Wik from Norway presenting the results of the Autopulse CIRC trial and Sten Rubertsson from Sweden on LINC trial, which used the LUCAS device.
The 2014 Medic One Lecture was given by Niklas Nielsen from Sweden on the impact of the recently published Targeted Temperature Management (TTM) trial and the changing approach to neuroprognostication following OHCA.
The theme of post-ROSC care continued as Simon Redwood from London reviewed the evidence for early percutaneous coronary intervention following OHCA.
Simon Edgar from Edinburgh and Lanty O’Connor from the USA illustrated the importance of non-technical skills by comparing resuscitation to other high-risk industries. This was followed by a high impact video simulation of the Edinburgh Resuscitation Rapid Response Unit (3RU) team in action, introduced by Colin Crookston and Steven Short.
Colin Robertson from Edinburgh closed the day with an inspirational and somewhat iconoclastic talk on the future of resuscitation which left the delegates roused to improve survival from OHCA in their local areas.
The symposium was generously sponsored by Zoll, Physio Control, Cardiac Services, Laerdal and Edesix. Feedback from the day was excellent and we look forward to seeing delegates at the next symposium.
Further information and pictures of the proceedings can be found at www.rrg-edinburgh.com . The videos from the symposium will be made available for online viewing shortly.
