Purpose: In Sweden, the ambulance response time from call to arrival is 11 minutes in patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, there is a small group of OHCA patients (20%) in whom this delay is minimized, namely those that occur minutes before or after the arrival of the ambulance. Despite CPR and/or defibrillation within one minute, only 20% survive to hospital discharge. The objective was therefore to determine whether a pathway with direct transportation to the cath lab, using mechanical chest compression (LUCAS), could improve survival in this selected group.

Aim: To describe characteristics, feasibility and outcome among a selected group of OHCA patients transported directly to the cath lab by the ambulance in a new pathway

Method: A prospective observational study from November 2013 to November 2015

Inclusion criteria: 1. Crew-witnessed cardiac arrest (CA) of cardiac origin or CA immediately defibrillated to return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) by public access. 2. CA occurring two to three minutes before ambulance arrival where the patient had immediate bystander CPR of high quality. 4. CA occurring two to three minutes before ambulance arrival where the patient was still breathing at ambulance arrival.

Exclusion criteria: Non-cardiac origin CA or high physiologic age (hospice patients)

Result: Sixty-four patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and 14 were excluded. Of the remaining 50 patients, 25 were transported with mechanical CPR to the cath lab. The time from CA to hospital was a median of 38 minutes. Survival to 30 days was 38% among all patients, 47% among VF (N=34) and 12% (N=25) among those who were transported with mechanical CPR.

Conclusion: The pathway appears safe and feasible, but the inclusion criteria need to be less complex. The vast majority of survivors were found in the VF population. There were survivors (12%) among patients transported with ongoing CPR (N=25) directly to the cath lab by the ambulance.