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Resuscitative thoracotomy: no survivors past 10 minutes
Traumatic Emergency Thoracotomy for Resuscitation in Shock (TETRiS): a national service evaluation of resuscitative thoracotomy practice outside the operating theatre
Resuscitation · 2026-10 · Added 30 October 2026
A prospective 12-month UK national service evaluation across 20 HEMS and 26 major trauma centres studied 116 resuscitative thoracotomies (82 prehospital) and found 43.1% achieved ROSC but only 6.9% survived to discharge, with no survivors beyond 10 minutes of traumatic cardiac arrest.
- Study type
- Cohort
- Design
- Prospective national service evaluation (PHOTON, TERN, NaTRIC networks)
- Participants
- 116 patients undergoing resuscitative thoracotomy (82 prehospital)
- Main finding
- 43.1% achieved ROSC and 6.9% survived to discharge; outcomes were substantially better with cardiac tamponade than exsanguination, and there were no survivors beyond 10 minutes of traumatic cardiac arrest
- Caveat
- Prospective service evaluation without a comparator group — patient selection for thoracotomy drives the outcomes
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Prehospital thoracotomy is a doctor-delivered HEMS skill in the UK model, not an Australian paramedic intervention — but the 10-minute ceiling and the tamponade-versus-exsanguination split inform how trauma arrest patients are triaged to major trauma centres here.
Learning goal
Weigh patient selection for prehospital resuscitative thoracotomy, especially in traumatic arrest from exsanguination.
More
- Topic: Trauma
- Daily scan: 30 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 30 October 2026
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