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Chest injury following cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A prospective computed tomography evaluation
Resuscitation, 07/26/2012
Clinical Article
Kim MJ et al. – The incidence of rib fracture following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was different in various hospitals. The presence of non–physician chest compressors in the emergency departments (ED) was one of the contributing factors to rib fracture.
Methods- This study was a prospective cross–sectional study conducted in the emergency departments (ED) of eight academic tertiary care centers.
- To evaluate injuries secondary to CPR, the authors performed chest computed tomography (CT) in patients who were successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest.
- Contributing factors that might be related to injuries were also investigated.
- The authors enrolled 71 patients between 1 January 2011 and 30 June 2011.
- Rib and sternal fractures were diagnosed in 22 and 3 patients, respectively.
- Females were more susceptible to rib fracture (p=0.036).
- When non–physicians participated as chest compressors in the ED, more ribs were fractured (p=0.048).
- The duration of CPR and number of compressors were not contributing factors to trauma secondary to CPR.
- There was a wide variation in the frequency of rib fractures from hospital to hospital (0–83.3%).
- In high–risk hospitals (in which more than 50% of patients had rib fractures), the average age of the patients was higher, and non–physicians took part in ED CPR more often than they did at low–risk hospitals.
