Top Things to Know: 2024 Update of the Utstein Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Registry Template

Published: July 24, 2024

Prepared by Comilla Sasson

This 2023 update of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) Utstein template aimed to clarify existing definitions, update variables to reflect recent changes, and provide useful reporting tools.
New core system elements highlight the importance of dispatchers and changes to systems and practice, such as volunteer community programs and high-performance cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Although dispatch data may be challenging to collect, we have retained dispatcher OHCA recognition and dispatcher CPR instructions as core data and added supplemental items that reflect important advances in dispatch.
Some patient core elements have been expanded to include additional data options and the the supplemental list now includes who first provided CPR and defibrillation.
The process core and supplemental variables are divided into intra-arrest and postresuscitation. This update expands the time points collected, including time points to estimate the duration of arrest, which may be important for statistical adjustment in observational research examining the impact of intra-arrest or post-arrest interventions.
Definitions and coding of some elements of postresuscitation care have been updated to reflect changes in treatment recommendations and to align with the 2019 in-hospital cardiac arrest Utstein template.
Some outcome items were modified to align with the ILCOR Core Outcomes Set for Cardiac Arrest (COSCA) publications.
Usable reporting flowcharts are provided for system effectiveness (attempted resuscitation) and system efficacy (Utstein comparator group).
A minimum dataset is provided for regions with developing emergency systems and low-resource settings.
A Consort-style checklist is provided to guide reporting in research publications.

View the summary for Cardiac Arrest and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Outcome Reports

Citation

Bray JE, Grasner J-T, Nolan JP, Iwami T, Ong MEH, Finn J, McNally B, Nehme Z, Sasson C, Tijssen J, Lim SL, Tjelmeland I, Wnent J, Dicker B, Nishiyama C, Doherty Z, Welsford M, Perkins GD; on behalf of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. Cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation outcome reports: 2024update of the Utstein Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Registry template. Circulation. Published online July 24, 2024. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001243