To explore the effect of clinical pathway of emergency respiratory and cardiac arrest on management of patients with sudden respiratory and cardiac arrest.

The clinical data of patients with sudden respiratory and cardiac arrest admitted to Huashan North Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from 1 year before to 1 year (started in July 2017) after the implementation of clinical pathway of emergency respiratory and cardiac arrest were retrospectively analyzed. The patients who managed by clinical pathway of emergency respiratory and cardiac arrest (from July 2017 to June 2018) were served as observational group, and those manually managed by 2015 American Heart Association cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular emergency guide update and the procession in the management of emergency key diseases (from July 2016 to June 2017) were set as control group. The gender, age, underlying disease, the initiation time of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the first time of defibrillation, the completion time of endotracheal intubation, the time of venous access, the usage time of the first dose of adrenaline, the usage time of vasoactive drugs, the completion rate of high quality CPR, the success rate of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and the table procedure of clinical pathway were compared between the two groups.

There was no statistically significant difference in gender, age or underlying disease between the two groups. Compared with the control group, the clinical pathway could effectively guide the decision-making of the emergency medical staffs, significantly reduce the variation in the procession of the resuscitation, the first time of defibrillation, the completion time of the deep vein catheterization, the usage time of norepinephrine and the completion time of the blood specimen delivery were significantly shortened [the first time of defibrillation (minutes): 1.28±0.86 vs. 2.93±1.61, the completion time of deep vein catheter (minutes): 15.13±2.73 vs. 17.25±3.02, the usage time of norepinephrine (minutes): 15.43±2.80 vs. 17.88±1.67, the completion time of blood specimen delivery (minutes): 7.81±1.42 vs. 9.00±1.03, all P < 0.05]. There was no statistically significant difference in the initiation time of CPR, the completion time of tracheal intubation, the time of peripheral venous access, the usage time of the first dose of adrenaline or sodium bicarbonate, or the success rate of ROSC between the two groups. However, the usage time of the first dose of adrenaline and sodium bicarbonate was shortened in the observation group [the usage time of the first dose of adrenaline (minutes): 3.81±1.22 vs. 4.00±1.32, the usage time of the first does of sodium bicarbonate (minutes): 8.94±3.49 vs. 11.19±3.54, both P > 0.05], and the success rate of ROSC was relatively increased as compared with those in the control group [15.04% (17/113) vs. 12.50% (12/96), P > 0.05].

The clinical pathway of emergency respiratory and cardiac arrest could effectively guide the clinical decision-making of the emergency medical staffs, significantly reduce the variation in the procession of the resuscitation, improve the quality of the resuscitation, and ensure medical safety of emergency department.

Emergency clinical pathway; Respiratory and cardiac arrest; Clinical practice; Evaluation