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Cardiac arrest
PEEP during CPR linked with more ROSC
Association between mechanical ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure and outcomes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
The American Journal of Emergency Medicine · 2026-10-31 · Added 9 November 2026
A single-centre Belgian cohort of intubated OHCA patients managed by a physician-staffed team found mechanical ventilation with PEEP during CPR was associated with higher odds of ROSC (adjusted OR 1.58) than manual ventilation without PEEP.
- Study type
- Cohort
- Design
- Single-centre retrospective cohort with continuous intratracheal pressure monitoring, physician-staffed EMS
- Participants
- 362 intubated adults with OHCA
- Main finding
- Adjusted OR for ROSC with mechanical ventilation using PEEP 1.58 (95% CI 1.01–2.50, p=0.048); unadjusted OR for survival to hospital discharge 2.22 (95% CI 1.03–4.78)
- Caveat
- Observational single-centre design, and the survival-to-discharge association was not adjusted for confounders
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Mechanical ventilation with PEEP is an intensive care paramedic capability in most services, and the study comes from a physician-staffed team — the ventilation question is relevant, the crewing model isn't ours.
Learning goal
Weigh the benefits and risks of applying positive end-expiratory pressure during ventilation in cardiac arrest resuscitation.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 9 November 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 9 November 2026
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