"These findings also support the idea that improved perfusion outside the hospital in the intervention group could result in more stable candidates for cardiac catheterization than were found in the standard CPR group, resulting in more patients in the intervention group being provided cardiac catheterization," they added.
While there were no differences in overall major adverse event rates between groups, the "occurrence of pulmonary edema was increased by 50% in the device group, which was coexistent with the increase in survival with favorable neurologic function. The clinical relevance of this finding is unclear: the percentage increase in pulmonary edema (46%) was proportional to the increase in survival in the intervention group (53%)," the researchers observed.
Dr. Aufderheide has been a consultant to Jolife Medical and Medtronic Foundation. One of the listed authors is coinventor of the two devices used in the study and founded Advanced Circulatory Systems. Another author has received lecture fees from Advanced Circulatory Systems, and another has significant financial relationships with Baxter, Vita Care Medical Products, and Cook Medical.