Abstract 17087: Doubled Survival From Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in a Rural Community in North-Norway Following Implementation of an Aggressive Chest Pain Protocol with Early Prehospital Thrombolysis for STEMI

Introduction Survival from prehospital cardiac arrest (PCA) remains low. Tromso municipality in rural North-Norway has a mixed urban-rural population of 60.000, good ground and air ambulance systems, short response times, and dispatch centres staffed with nurses and paramedics, all loyal to current guidelines. Hypothesis By changing focus from the onset of ‘collapse’ in PCA to the onset of chest pain in acute coronary syndrome, we hypothesized that more PCA-patients could survive by saving time to alarm, dispatch, diagnosis and first defibrillation. We started an aggressive criteria based prehospital chest pain protocol in 2000. Local GPs and ambulance paramedics were trained in symptoms and signs of STEMI, to access and transmit prehospital 12-leads ECG, give MONA as well as early prehospital thrombolysis (PHT) to patients with prehospital diagnosed acute STEMI. We applied defibrillation pads to all chest pain. The population was informed through media stunts. Methods Retrospective study of survival from...