Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) Initiative small animal CPR registry report 2016-2021

To introduce the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) CPR registry and report cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) and CPR event data collected to date.

International, multi-institutional veterinary CPR registry data report.

Veterinary private practice and university teaching hospitals.

Data from 514 dogs and 195 cats undergoing CPR entered in the RECOVER CPR registry between February 2016 and November 2021.

The RECOVER CPR registry is an online medical database created for standardized collection of hospital, animal, arrest, and outcome information on dogs and cats undergoing CPR. Data were collected according to the veterinary Utstein-style guidelines for standardized reporting of in-hospital CPR in dogs and cats. Case records were downloaded, duplicate and incomplete cases were removed, and summary descriptive data were reported.

Sixteen hospitals in the United States, Europe, and Australia contributed data on 709 CPR events to the registry. One hundred and forty-two (28%) dogs and 58 (30%) cats attained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), 62 (12%) dogs and 25 (13%) cats had ROSC >20 minutes, and 14 (3%) dogs and 4 (2%) cats survived to hospital discharge. The reason for CPR discontinuation was reported as owner choice in 321 cases (63%). The most common suspected causes for CPA were respiratory failure (n = 142, 20%), heart failure (n = 86, 12%), and hemorrhage (n = 76, 11%).

The RECOVER CPR registry contains the first multicenter data set on small animal CPR. It confirms poor outcomes associated with CPA, emphasizing the need for large-sized studies to gain adequate information on characteristics associated with favorable outcomes.