A “code blue” is called at your hospital, and you rush into the crowd, ready to intubate the patient. According to an analysis on tracheal intubation during in-hospital cardiac arrest, which of the following is most likely true about patients who were intubated versus those who were not?
The multicenter Get With The Guidelines–Resuscitation registry sponsored by the American Heart Association (AHA) is the largest, most comprehensive database of cardiac arrests in US hospitals. For a recent study, researchers retrospectively looked at data from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2014 for patients aged 18 years and older who suffered a cardiac arrest, defined as pulselessness requiring chest compressions or defibrillation with an emergency response activation. The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether early tracheal intubation (i.e., within 15 minutes of resuscitation) was associated with survival to discharge. Secondary measures of interest included a return of...