Feasibility of bispectral index monitoring to guide early post-resuscitation cardiac arrest triage.

INTRODUCTION

Triage after resuscitation from cardiac arrest is hindered by reliable early estimation of brain injury. We evaluated the performance of a triage model based on early bispectral index (BIS) findings and cardiac risk classes.

METHODS

Retrospective evaluation of serial patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest, unable to follow commands, and undergoing hypothermia. Patients were assigned to a cardiac risk group: STEMI, VT/VF shock, VT/VF no shock, or PEA/asystole, and to a neurological dysfunction group, based on the BIS score following first neuromuscular blockade (BISi), and classified as BISi>20, BISi 10-20, or BISi<10. Cause of death was described as neurological or circulatory.

RESULTS

BISi in 171 patients was measured at 267(±177)min after resuscitation and 35(±1.7)°C. BISi<10 suffered 82% neurological-cause and 91% overall mortality, BISi 10-20 35% neurological and 55% overall mortality, and BISi>20 12% neurological and 36% overall mortality. 33 patients presented with STEMI, 15 VT/VF-shock, 41 VT/VF-no shock, and 80 PEA/asystole. Among BISi>20 patients, 75% with STEMI underwent urgent cardiac catheterization (cath) and 94% had good outcome. When BISi>20 with VT/VF and shock, urgent cath was infrequent (33%), and 4 deaths (44%) were uniformly of circulatory etiology. Of 56 VT/VF patients without STEMI, 24 were BISi>20 but did not undergo urgent cath - 5(20.8%) of these had circulatory-etiology death. Circulatory-etiology death also occurred in 26.5% BIS>20 patients with PEA/asystole. When BISi<10, a neurological etiology death dominated independent of cardiac risk group.

CONCLUSIONS

Neurocardiac triage based on very early processed EEG (BIS) is feasible, and may identify patients appropriate for individualized post-resuscitation care. This and other triage models warrant further study.