Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background and Aim: Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) has been used by medical professionals to save the life of dying patients. To achieve more success rates in CPR, the timing factor is of great importance as any delay in starting CPR will reduce the success rate. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the time elapsed between CPR code announcement and start of resuscitation on CPR outcome.

  Material and Method: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from June 2004 till June 2005 using checklists that were routinely used in CPR protocol. A total number of 327 cases of CPR were studied and the data was analyzed by SPSS software.

  Results: Our results showed that 163 cases of CPR (49.9%) were immediately successful. Of those cases with immediate successful CPR, only 46 cases (28.2%) discharged from hospital and 117 cases (71.8%) died afterwards. In the other words, only 46 cases (14.06%) out of 327 patients who underwent CPR, discharged from hospital and the rest (85.94%) died. The mean time elapsed between CPR code announcement and the start of CPR operations was 1.63 minute and 1.87 minute in immediate successful and unsuccessful CPRs, respectively. This difference is statistically significant (P≤0.001). The mean time elapsed between CPR code announcement and the start of CPR protocol in ultimate successful CPRs (the patients discharged) was 1.28 minute against 1.76 min for total of unsuccessful CPRs (P≤0.001).

  Conclusion: This study showed that seconds of delay in starting CPR operations reduce the success rate and that the basic CPR should be started as soon as possible within the first 4 minutes followed by advanced CPR. So, reducing the delay time may lead to better outcome. This study also showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between delay time and outcome of CPR.