The Presence of Agonal Respiration During Cardiac Arrest and Resuscitation Attempts by Witnesses

Background. Agonal respiration could be defined as a terminal pattern occurring due to anoxia or brain ischemia and is often seen in patients in the early phase of cardiac arrest. Objective. To assess bystander CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) frequency in patients in cardiac arrest with and without agonal respirations and the influence of this phenomenon on clinical outcome. Material and Methods. A retrospective study was conducted on EMS cardiac arrest medical records from one district in Poland with a resident population of 73,000 from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2005. Results. Sixty-six patients aged 65.4 +/- 13 years were eligible for inclusion in the study. Bystander CPR was performed on 20 patients, 8 of them had agonal respiration assessed by the bystander. Bystander CPR was not performed on 46 patients and 15 of them had agonal respiration. Emergency medical service staff reported agonal respiration on arrival in 14 cases and 8 of them had had resuscitation attempts provided by bystanders. A stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that survival to hospital admission is related to agonal respiration at the time emergency medical service staff arrival (OR-12.4 CI 2.4-63.4 p < 0.001). Conclusions. The presence of agonal respiration during cardiac arrest is not related to rarer resuscitation attempts by witnesses. Agonal respiration and CPR attempts by laypersons may improve short-term clinical outcome (Adv Clin Exp Med 2011, 20, 6, 761-765).