Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with prehospital double sequential external defibrillation during eCPR in refractory VF — a case report

Background Double sequential external defibrillation (DSED) has demonstrated increased survival with good neurological outcome in a recent randomized controlled trial. DSED has not been studied in patients with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR). Case We present the first case of prehospital eCPR with ongoing refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF), terminated by DSED. After six shocks, return of spontaneous circulation was initially achieved; however, the patient went into recurrent VF. ECPR was performed prehospital, with VF still refractory after three more shocks. DSED successfully terminated VF and showed a further increase in etCO 2 and near-infrared spectroscopy cerebral oximetry values. Conclusion DSED can be a sufficient strategy for patients in refractory VF while on eCPR and should be evaluated in further studies.