Abstract 16996: Controlled Pauses (“Stutter”) CPR Did Not Improve ROSC or 4-hour Survival in a Porcine Model of VF-induced Cardiac Arrest

Introduction: Ischemic post-conditioning (IPC) has shown promise in mitigating ischemia-reperfusion injury. Controlled pauses during CPR (CP-CPR) following cardiac arrest (CA) and prolonged downtime may help invoke IPC mechanisms and have been shown to improve neurological outcome in swine. We tested whether CP-CPR would improve return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and/or 4-hr survival rates, compared with standard CPR from a mechanical chest compression device (M-CPR), following prolonged downtime in a porcine model of ventricular fibrillation (VF)-induced CA. Methods: Twenty anesthetized and instrumented pigs were block randomized to two protocols. Following 10 min of VF, mechanical CPR was initiated (100 comp/min, 50% duty cycle, 2 inch depth). Over the first 5 minutes of CPR, the M-CPR protocol group received continuous chest compressions, while the CP-CPR protocol included four 20-sec pauses in compressions starting at 40, 100, 160, and 220 sec. All other interventions were the same in the two gr...