Foreign Body Airway Obstruction, Incidence, Survival EMS-treatment and First Aid Treatment by Laypersons

Plain-language summary

Background: Foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO) is often described as an uncommon cause of Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) accounting for approximately 1.4% of all OHCA. Reported incidents rates of FBAO causing cardiac arrest are unclear, and first aid by layperson are not well described. The aim of the epidemiological part of the study is: * to investigate information on actions taken by EMS-personnel and laypersons * to investigate outcomes of hypoxic Cardiac Arrest due to foreign body airway obstruction in Denmark * to increase overall survival. propose new guidelines and strategies to increase survival from OHCA caused by FBAO. The aim of advanced text-string search algorithm part of the study is \- To investigate if an advanced text-string search algorithm can identify FBAO in medical records with high sensitivity Methods: National data will be collected from the verified 2016-2019 Danish OHCA register, and cases with FBAO prior to OHCA will selected via a direct marking by external validation and advanced text search. Patients reported as indisputably deceased (late signs of death) was excluded. Incidence rates per 100.000 citizens, survival rates to hospital and first aid actions by layperson are presented. A pilot study have been conducted in regional data from 2016-2019 and the study group have concluded that, a national study is feasible with the current amount of data and the used methodology. Expected outcome: This study will enable targeted campaigns aimed at increasing survival from OHCA caused by FBAO. Potential campaigns might target the food items provided to potential vulnerable groups and guide focus for first aid recommendations. Further, with a deeper understanding of which airway management procedures most often are successful, it will be possible to improve EMS treatments of vulnerable groups. Finally, a novel method of extracting information from the electronic medical records will be developed creating the foundation for future works on other prehospital conditions

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