Longer perishock pauses were associated with decreased survival to hospital discharge after out-of-hospital shockable cardiac arrest

Adams comments on the study by Cheskes et al examining whether perishock pause in chest compressions is associated with survival to hospital discharge in patients with out-of-hospital shockable cardiac arrest. Results show that longer perishock and preshock pauses in chest compressions were associated with decreased survival to hospital discharge after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Here, he stresses that approaching the theoretical ideal preshock pause will ultimately require software that can reliably detect shockable rhythms through the noise of chest compressions, thus allowing for nearly instantaneous defibrillation. As in track records, speed improvements will arrive incrementally through improved training and better technology--particularly faster analytic algorithms for automated external defibrillators and faster charging capacitors.