Japanese medical students' awareness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aim: To evaluate Japanese medical students' awareness of newly recommended cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and airway management procedures in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: An online survey was sent in December 2020 to all medical students at Hirosaki University in Japan. The survey included 15 questions and quizzes regarding prior experience of learning the new CPR guidelines in response to COVID-19, knowledge of conventional CPR, and COVID-19 context CPR and airway management procedures. Results: Of all medical students at the university, 457 (57.1%) responded to the survey. Among these, 22% reported that they were knowledgeable about CPR procedure in the COVID-19 pandemic setting. Prior knowledge of CPR in the context of COVID-19 was a significant positive predictor of quiz score regarding the CPR procedure (ß = 0.60, P < 0.01) and the airway management procedure (ß = 0.34, P = 0.02) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Medical students with experience learning the new COVID-19 context CPR guidelines had sufficient knowledge of CPR and advanced airway management procedures in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. Implementation of a formal medical education curriculum based on the newly recommended CPR and advanced life support guidelines is needed to improve medical students' awareness and skills of CPR and airway management in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of air temperature on occurrence of bath-related cardiac arrest.

ABSTRACT: The mortality of the bath-related cardiac arrest (BRCA) is extremely high. While air temperature is reported to be associated with the BRCA occurrence, it is unclear whether daily minimum temperatures or the difference between maximum and minimum air temperatures influences BRCA occurrence the most.A retrospective cohort study of adult patients was conducted between January 2015 and February 2020 at Hirosaki University Hospital Emergency Department. The following data were collected: age, sex, day of cardiac arrest event, location of the event, initial cardiac rhythm, presence of return of spontaneous circulation, and overall mortality (status at 1 month after cardiac arrest event). Based on the day of the event and the location in which the event occurred, daily minimum and maximum temperatures were obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency database.A total of 215 eligible cardiac arrest cases were identified, including 25 cases of BRCA. Comparing BRCA and non-BRCA, initial shockable cardiac rhythm (4.0% vs 44.7%), presence of return of spontaneous circulation (8.0% vs 34.7%), and overall mortality (96.0% vs 71.6%) differed significantly (P < .05 each). Daily minimum and maximum temperatures showed no significant relationships with BRCA or non-BRCA. Daily minimum temperature was a risk factor of BRCA occurrence after adjusting for age and temperature difference (risk ratio, 0.937; 95% confidence interval, 0.882-0.995).Daily minimum temperature represents a potential risk factor for BRCA occurrence.