RESUMEN
Endotracheal intubation is the gold standard in inpatient treatment of cardiac arrest patients; however, there are conflicting research results in out-of-hospital conditions. This prospective study included 92 patients with confirmed cardiac arrest occurring outside a hospital facility, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and whom the emergency ambulance team reached within 20 minutes from the event. Medical data on each patient (age, gender, cause of arrest, estimated time of arrest, time to arrival of the ambulance team, resuscitation commenced prior to arrival of the ambulance team, initial electrocardiographic rhythm, method of airway management, and success of resuscitation) were recorded. The airway maintenance techniques applied in the patients were endotracheal intubation and I-gel laryngeal mask (LMA). The rate of spontaneous circulation recovery resulting from different techniques of airway management and the incidence of spontaneous circulation recovery between the defibrillation rhythm and non-defibrillable rhythm groups were recorded for each patient. Forty-seven patients received endotracheal tube and the rest of 45 patients I-gel LMA treatment. The ratio of achieving spontaneous circulation with intubation versus I-gel LMA was 13 (28%) to 11 (24%) (p=0.725). The best return of spontaneous circulation results was recorded in patients suffering from ventricular fibrillation; however, there was no statistically significant difference between the intubation and I-gel LMA treatments (8 (47%) vs. 7 (41%); p=0.916). No statistically significant difference was observed between the outcomes of patients resuscitated by endotracheal intubation and I-gel LMA methods either.