Hypertonic saline infusion during resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A matched-pair study from the German Resuscitation Registry

Abstract Aim Survival rates after out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest (OHCA) differ widely between EMS systems. Since hypertonic saline appears to improve long-term outcome after OHCA, some local EMS systems have included it in their treatment protocols for OHCA. Our first aim was to give a quality review of one of these protocols. Our second aim was to assess whether short-term survival improves when hypertonic saline is used in resuscitation after OHCA. Methods Matched pairs were identified for the independent “return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after cardiac arrest” (RACA) score variables and for use of ACD-CPR, adrenaline, and amiodarone from the German Resuscitation Registry (GRR) for January 2000 to March 2011. Patients received either 2 ml kg −1 hypertonic saline with hydroxyethyl starch (7.2% NaCl with 6% hydroxyethyl starch 200,000/0.5, HyperHAES ® [HHS]) infused intravenously within 10 min during CPR according to local treatment protocols or standard of care CPR (NON-HHS). The primary endpoint was admission to hospital rate (with spontaneous circulation); secondary endpoint was ROSC rate in relation to RACA score. Results 322 matched pairs were defined for 14 variables. Predicted ROSC-rate using RACA-score was similar in HHS (44.63%) and NON-HHS (43.63%; p  = 0.440). In contrast, 190 (59.0%) HHS patients achieved ROSC compared with only 136 NON-HHS patients (42.2%; χ 2 : p χ 2 : p Conclusion Locally implemented treatment protocols using hypertonic saline/HES after OHCA are safe and effective. Also, we verified that short-term survival rates were better in patients receiving HHS.