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Utilizing Percutaneous Ventricular Assist Devices in Acute Myocardial Infarction Complicated by Cardiogenic Shock
Published on: June 12, 2021
Benefit of mechanical chest compression devices in mountain HEMS: lessons learned from 1 year of experience and
Urs Pietsch1, Volker Lischke2, Christine Pietsch3
1Kantonsspital St Gallen Klinik für Anästhesiologie, Raron, Switzerland.
Introduction:
Pre-hospital care of cardiac arrest patients in the mountain environment is one of the most challenging problems for helicopter medical emergency services (HEMS) teams. To provide high-quality chest compression with minimal hand s-off-time is very demanding in the alpine area.
Methods:
We used and evaluated mechanical chest compression devices (Lucas and AutoPulse) and investigated if these are good and useful tools in the alpine HEMS. Over a period of 12 months we performed 7 CPRs in remote alpine terrain.
Conclusion:
On the strength of our past experience, CPR under special circumstances like deep hypothermia, in which a prolonged CPR is essential, the use of the Lucas and/or AutoPulse was an easy and sufficient tool even in difficult alpine terrain which requires special rescue missions like winch or MERS evacuation.
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