Physician's presence in pre-hospital setting improves one-month favorable neurological survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A propensity score matching analysis of the JAAM-OHCA Registry

Background: Using the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) registry in Japan, we evaluated the effectiveness of physicians' presence in pre-hospital settings after adjusting in-hospital treatments.

Methods: This was a multicenter cohort study. We registered all consecutive OHCA patients in Japan who, from 1 June 2014 through 31 December 2017, were transported to institutions participating in the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine OHCA registry. We included OHCA patients aged at least 18 years, with medical etiology, and who received resuscitation from emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and medical professionals in hospitals. The primary outcome was one-month favorable neurological survival. We estimated the propensity score by fitting a logistic regression model that was adjusted for several variables before the arrival of EMS personnel and/or pre-hospital physician. A multivariable logistic regression analysis in propensity score-matched patients was used to adjust confounders, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, percutaneous coronary intervention, intra-aortic balloon pumping, and targeted temperature management.

Results: We analyzed 19,247 patients. Among them, 5.4% (N = 1040) had a neurologically favorable outcome. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of the physicians' presence compared with their absence for primary outcome was 1.84 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.43-2.37). Among first documented non-shockable cardiac rhythm, the AOR was 1.51 (95% CI: 1.04-2.22). Among first documented shockable cardiac rhythm, the AOR of the physicians' presence for primary outcome was 1.15 (95% CI: 0.83-1.59).

Conclusion: The improved one-month favorable neurological survival was significantly associated with the physicians' presence in pre-hospital settings, compared with the physicians' absence.