Appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation duration and predictors of return of spontaneous circulation in traumatic cardiac arrest.

Background: Despite advances in trauma care, traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) shows significantly poorer outcomes compared to non-traumatic cardiac arrest, with mortality rates exceeding 96%. However, no standardized protocol exists for appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) duration in TCA. This study aimed to establish evidence-based CPR duration thresholds and identify factors associated with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in TCA patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study using a single-centre trauma registry of adult patients with TCA between January 2021 and December 2023. Univariate analysis was used to identify differences in the baseline and outcome variables between the ROSC and no-ROSC groups. We performed multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify factors independently associated with ROSC. We also investigated the appropriate cutoff time of pre-hospital and total CPR duration for ROSC (the CPR duration that has maximum sensitivity and specificity for ROSC).

Results: In total, 422 patients with TCA were included, of whom 250 were eligible for analysis. The proportion of patients with ROSC was 22.4% (n = 56), and trauma bay/emergency department mortality and in-hospital mortality rates were 80.8% (n = 202) and 97.2% (n = 243), respectively. Factors associated with ROSC included alert mental status in the field, as indicated by verbal response (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.01-1.12; p = 0.06), pain response (OR, 0.03; 95% CI, 0.01-0.43; p = 0.009), and unresponsiveness (OR, 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.44; p = 0.009) and non-asystolic initial rhythms, such as pulseless electrical activity (OR, 4.26; 95% CI, 1.92-9.46; p < 0.001), shockable rhythm (OR, 14.26; 95% CI, 1.44-141.54; p = 0.023), pre-hospital CPR duration (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.85-0.95), and total CPR duration (OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.84-0.92; p < 0.001). The upper limits of pre-hospital and total CPR durations for achieving a probability of ROSC < 1% were 23 and 30 min, respectively, whereas those for a cumulative portion of ROSC > 99% were 27 and 38 min, respectively. Among the survivors (n = 7), six had favourable functional outcomes at discharge.

Conclusions: This study provides evidence-based CPR duration thresholds in TCA, demonstrating that resuscitation efforts beyond 27 min in prehospital settings and 38 min in total were futile. Additionally, an alert mental status in the field and non-asystolic initial rhythm were identified as positive predictors of ROSC. These findings may help guide appropriate duration of resuscitation efforts in TCA.