Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a crucial therapy for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), yet rates of bystander CPR are low. This is especially the case for SCA occurring in the home setting, as family members of at-risk patients are often not CPR trained. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the feasibility of a novel hospital-based CPR education program targeted to family members of patients at increased risk for SCA. DESIGN/METHODS:Prospective, multicenter, cohort study. SETTING/METHODS:Inpatient wards at 3 hospitals. SUBJECTS/METHODS:Family members of inpatients admitted with cardiac-related diagnoses. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS/RESULTS:Family members were offered CPR training via a proctored video-self instruction (VSI) program. After training, CPR skills and participant perspectives regarding their training experience were assessed. Surveys were conducted one month postdischarge to measure the rate of "secondary training" of other individuals by enrolled family members. At the 3 study sites, 756 subjects were offered CPR instruction; 280 agreed to training and 136 underwent instruction using the VSI program. Of these, 78 of 136 (57%) had no previous CPR training. After training, chest compression performance was generally adequate (mean compression rate 90 ± 26/minute, mean depth 37 ± 12 mm). At 1 month, 57 of 122 (47%) of subjects performed secondary training for friends or family members, with a calculated mean of 2.1 persons trained per kit distributed. CONCLUSIONS:The hospital setting offers a unique "point of capture" to provide CPR instruction to an important, undertrained population in contact with at-risk individuals.

BACKGROUND:It is unclear whether plastic or metal stents are more suitable for preoperative biliary decompression in pancreatic cancer. The objective of this study was to compare the rate of endoscopic reinterventions in patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing plastic or self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) placements for preoperative biliary decompression. METHODS:This was a retrospective study of all patients with obstructive jaundice secondary to pancreatic head cancer who underwent their index endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and all follow-up biliary stent placements at our center before undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy. Plastic or SEMS were placed at ERCP for biliary decompression. The main outcome measure was to compare the rate of endoscopic reinterventions between the plastic and SEMS cohorts. RESULTS:29 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy had preoperative biliary stent placement (18 plastic, 11 SEMS) at our center. Whereas none of the 11 patients who underwent SEMS placement had stent dysfunction, 7 of 18 (39%) patients with plastic stents required endoscopic reintervention before surgery (P=0.02). Reinterventions were due to cholangitis (n=1) or persistent elevation in serum bilirubin levels (n=6). Two patients with SEMS underwent EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration after ERCP, which yielded a positive diagnosis of cancer in all cases; SEMS did not impair visualization of the tumor mass at EUS. Pancreaticoduodenectomy was undertaken successfully in all 29 patients and the presence of a SEMS did not interfere with biliary anastomosis. On univariate logistic regression, only SEMS placement was associated with less need for endoscopic reintervention (P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS:SEMS are superior to plastic stents for preoperative biliary decompression in pancreatic cancer.