EARLY DETERMINATION OF NEUROLOGICAL OUTCOME AFTER PREHOSPITAL CARDIOPULMONARY-RESUSCITATION

Background and Purpose Although there are various meth;ods of determin ing neurological prognosis after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the fi nal outcome of patients often remains unclear for quite a long time. M ethods We investigated 30 consecutively admitted patients who had been successfully resuscitated by the team of the local mobile intensive c are unit after cardiac arrest. Determinations of the period of anoxia and of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation time, clinical investigation, echocardiography, electroencephalography, evoked potentials, magnetic resonance imaging, and-magnetic resonance spectroscopy were performed . Results Demonstration of brain lactate in proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (P<.01) and absent N20 waves in short-latency somatosenso ry evoked potentials (P<.01) proved to be significant in terms of a po or prognosis. Correlations between both duration of anoxia and cardiop ulmonary resuscitation time and neurological outcome could be shown as well (both P<.05). Conclusions Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and short-latency evoked potentials are of great benefit in the progn ostic evaluation after cardiopulmonary resuscitation.