Resuscitation and Capillary Reperfusion

Persistent microperfusion alterations after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) are associated with poor survival. To our knowledge, no human studies evaluating microperfusion during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with simple and pre-hospital available tests have been published. Capillary refill time (CRT) and skin-mottling-score (SMS) are parameters for microperfusion and evaluated in septic and cardiogenic shock. In animal studies, microperfusion was impaired during cardiac arrest, although not correlating with systemic blood pressure. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between impaired microcirculation (as measured with CRT and SMS) during resuscitation and ROSC resp. neurological outcome. Our clinical impression in daily routine is, that the appearance of a patient undergoing CPR is often linked to the outcome. We hypothesize, that this is due to changes in microperfusion of the skin.