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Objectives: To determine whether there is a difference in antibiotic administration time and prognosis in afebrile sepsis patients compared to febrile sepsis patients., Methods: This was retrospective multicenter observational study. Data collected from three referral hospitals. Data were collected from May 2014 through February 2016 under the SEPSIS-2 criteria and from March 2016 to April 2020 under the newly released SEPSIS-3 criteria. Patients were divided into two groups based on body temperature: afebrile (<37.3 °C) and febrile (≥37.3 °C). The relationship between initial body temperature and 28-day mortality were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. The subgroup analysis was conducted on patients with complete Hour-1 bundle performance records., Results: We included 4293 patients in this study. Initial body temperatures in 28-day survivors were significantly higher than in 28-day non-survivors (37.5 °C ± 1.2 °C versus 37.1 °C ± 1.2 °C, p < 0.01). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed in afebrile and febrile sepsis patients. Adjusted odds ratio of afebrile sepsis patients for 28-day mortality was 1.76 (95% Confidence interval 1.46-2.12). As a result of performing the Hour-1 bundle, the number of patients who received antibiotics within 1 h was smaller in the afebrile sepsis patients (323/2076, 15.6%) than in the febrile sepsis patients (395/2156, 18.3%) (p = 0.02). In the subgroup analysis of patients with complete Hour-1 bundle performance records adjusted odds ratio of afebrile sepsis patients for 28-day mortality was 1.68 (95% Confidence interval 1.34-2.11). The febrile sepsis patients received antibiotics faster than the afebrile sepsis patients (175.5 ± 207.9 versus 209.3 ± 277.9, p < 0.01)., Conclusions: Afebrile sepsis patients were associated with higher 28-day mortality compared to their febrile counterparts and were delayed in receiving antibiotics. This underscores the need for improved early detection and treatment strategies for the afebrile sepsis patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Early identification of sepsis with a poor prognosis in the emergency department (ED) is crucial for prompt management and improved outcomes. This study aimed to examine the predictive value of sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), quick SOFA (qSOFA), lactate to albumin ratio (LAR), C-reactive protein to albumin ratio (CAR), and procalcitonin to albumin ratio (PAR), obtained in the ED, as predictors for 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis and septic shock., Materials and Methods: We included 3499 patients (aged ≥19 years) from multicenter registry of the Korean Shock Society between October 2015 and December 2019. The SOFA score, qSOFA score, and lactate level at the time of registry enrollment were used. Albumin, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin levels were obtained from the initial laboratory results measured upon ED arrival. We evaluated the predictive accuracy for 28-day mortality using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve. A multivariable logistic regression analysis of the independent predictors of 28-day mortality was performed. The SOFA score, LAR, CAR, and PAR were converted to categorical variables using Youden's index and analyzed. Adjusting for confounding factors such as age, sex, comorbidities, and infection focus, adjusted odds ratios (aOR) were calculated., Results: Of the 3499 patients, 2707 (77.4%) were survivors, whereas 792 (22.6%) were non-survivors. The median age of the patients was 70 (25th-75th percentiles, 61-78), and 2042 (58.4%) were male. LAR for predicting 28-day mortality had the highest AUROC, followed by the SOFA score (0.715; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69-0.74 and 0.669; 95% CI: 0.65-0.69, respectively). The multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that the aOR of LAR >1.52 was 3.75 (95% CI: 3.16-4.45), and the aOR, of SOFA score at enrollment >7.5 was 2.67 (95% CI: 2.25-3.17)., Conclusion: The results of this study showed that LAR is a relatively strong predictor of sepsis prognosis in the ED setting, indicating its potential as a straightforward and practical prognostic factor. This finding may assist healthcare providers in the ED by providing them with tools to risk-stratify patients and predict their mortality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: It is important to be able to predict the chance of survival to hospital discharge upon ED arrival in order to determine whether to continue or terminate resuscitation efforts after out of hospital cardiac arrest. This study was conducted to develop and validate a simple scoring rule that could predict survival to hospital discharge at the time of ED arrival., Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study based on a nationwide registry (Korean Cardiac Arrest Research Consortium) of out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The study included adult OHCA patients older than 18 years old, who visited one of 33 tertiary hospitals in South Korea from September 1st, 2015 to June 30th, 2020. Among 12,321 screened, 5471 patients were deemed suitable for analysis after exclusion. Pre-hospital ROSC, pre-hospital witness, shockable rhythm, initial pH, and age were selected as the independent variables. The dependent variable was set to be the survival to hospital discharge. Multivariable logistic regression (LR) was performed, and the beta-coefficients were rounded to the nearest integer to formulate the scoring rule. Several machine learning algorithms including the random forest classifier (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and K-nearest neighbor classifier (K-NN) were also trained via 5-fold cross-validation over a pre-specified grid, and validated on the test data. The prediction performances and the calibration curves of each model were obtained. Pre-processing of the registry was done using R, model training & optimization using Python., Results: A total of 5471 patients were included in the analysis. The AUROC of the scoring rule over the test data was 0.7620 (0.7311-0.7929). The AUROCs of the machine learning classifiers (LR, SVM, k-NN, RF) were 0.8126 (0.7748-0.8505), 0.7920 (0.7512-0.8329), 0.6783 (0.6236-0.7329), and 0.7879 (0.7465-0.8294), respectively., Conclusion: A simple scoring rule consisting of five, binary variables could aid in the prediction of the survival to hospital discharge at the time of ED arrival, showing comparable results to conventional machine learning classifiers., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Brain oedema after cardiac arrest is strongly associated with poor neurological outcomes. Excessive sodium supplementation may increase serum osmolarity and facilitate brain oedema development in cardiac arrest survivors. We aimed to investigate the association of serum sodium levels with long-term neurological outcomes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survivors., Methods: This retrospective observational study used a multicentre prospective cohort registry of OHCA survivors collected between December 2013 and February 2018. We analyzed the association of serum sodium levels at the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) (Sodium 0H) and at 24 h after ROSC (Sodium 24H) with 1-year neurological outcomes in OHCA survivors. Patients with 1-year cerebral performance categories (CPC) 1 and 2 were included in the good outcome group while those with CPC 3, 4, and 5 were included in the poor outcome group., Results: Among 277 patients, 84 (30.3%) and 193 (69.7%) were in the good and poor outcome groups, respectively. Compared with the good outcome group, the poor outcome group showed significantly higher Sodium 24H levels (140 mEq/L vs. 137.4 mEq/L, p < 0.001). Increased serum sodium levels per 1 mEq/L increased the risk of poor 1-year CPC by 13% (adjusted odds ratio = 1.13; 95% CI, 1.04⎼1.23; p = 0.004)., Conclusions: Relatively high Sodium 24H levels showed a strong and independent association with poor long-term neurological outcomes in OHCA survivors. These findings may be applied in therapeutic strategies for improving neurological outcomes in OHCA survivors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Acute diverticulitis (AD) is a common disease with various outcomes. When AD is diagnosed in the emergency department (ED), the ED clinician must determine the patient's treatment strategy whether the patient can be discharged, needs to be admitted to the general ward, ICU, or needs surgical consultation. This study aimed to identify potential risk factors for clinically important outcomes (CIOs) and to develop a prediction model for CIOs in AD to aid clinical decision making in the ED., Methods: Retrospective data from between 2013 and 2017 in an ED in an urban setting were reviewed for adult AD. Potential risk factors were age, sex, past medical history, symptoms, physical exams, laboratory results, and imaging results. A CIO was defined as a case with one of the following outcomes: hospital death, ICU admission, surgery or invasive intervention, and admission for 7 or more days. The prediction model for CIOs was developed using potential risk factors. Model discrimination and calibration were assessed using the area under the curve (AUC) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) test, respectively. Model validation was conducted using 500 random bootstrap samples., Results: Of the final 337 AD patients, 63 patients had CIOs. Six potential factors (age, abdominal pain (≥ 3 days), anorexia, rebound tenderness, white blood cell count (> 15,000/μl), C-reactive protein (> 10 mg/dL), and CT findings of a complication) were used for the final model. The AUC (95% CI) for CIOs was 0.875 (0.826-0.923), and χ 2 was 2.969 (p-value = 0.936) with the HL test. Validation using bootstrap samples resulted in an optimism-corrected AUC of 0.858 (0.856-0.861)., Conclusion: A prediction model for clinically important outcomes of AD visiting a single ED showed good discrimination and calibration power with an acceptable range., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Nothing to declare is in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of initial and post-fluid resuscitation lactate levels in predicting 28 day mortality., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a multi-center registry of suspected septic shock cases that was prospectively collected between October 2015 and December 2018 from 11 Emergency Departments. The primary outcome was 28 day mortality. The diagnostic performance of the initial and post-fluid resuscitation lactate levels as a predictor for 28 day mortality was assessed., Results: A total of 2568 patients were included in the final analysis. The overall 28 day mortality rate was 23%. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of initial lactate for predicting 28 day mortality was 0.66 (95% CI, 0.64-0.69) and that of after fluid administration lactate was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.67-0.72), and there was a significant difference (p < 0.001). The optimal cutoff point of lactate after fluid administration was 4.4 mmol/L. Compared with this, the Sepsis-3 definition with a lactate level of 2 mmol/L or more was relatively more sensitive and less specific for predicting 28 day mortality., Conclusion: The post-fluid resuscitation lactate level was more accurate than the initial lactate level in predicting 28 day mortality in patients with suspected septic shock., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no potential conflicts of interest or funding sources to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Metabolic acidosis is commonly associated with the disease severity in patients with sepsis or septic shock. This study was performed to investigate the association between serum total carbon dioxide (TCO 2) concentration and 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis., Methods: This study was a multicenter retrospective cohort study of patients with sepsis or septic shock. The relationships between serum TCO 2 and 28-day mortality, bicarbonate, pH, lactate, and anion gap were determined with cubic spline curves. The patients were divided into four groups according to their serum TCO 2 concentration: Group I (TCO 2  > 20 mmol/l), Group II (15 < TCO 2  ≤ 20 mg/dl), Group III (10 < TCO 2  ≤ 15 mmol/l), and Group IV (TCO 2  ≤ 10 mmol/l)., Results: A total of 3168 patients were included in the analysis, and the overall mortality rate was 24.1%. Serum TCO 2 concentrations below 20 mmol/l showed an almost linear correlation with mortality as well as with lactate, bicarbonate, and pH. The 28-day mortality rates of Group I, II, III, and IV were 18.3%, 23.6%, 32.6%, and 50.0%, respectively (p < .001). In Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, the groups with lower serum TCO 2 concentrations had a higher risk of 28-day mortality compared with Group I: Group II (Hazard ratio (HR), 1.35; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11-1.64), Group III (HR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.37-2.21), and Group IV (HR, 2.72; 95% CI, 2.03-3.64)., Conclusions: Serum TCO 2 concentrations of 20 mmol/l or less were associated with 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: To provide a prompt and optimal intensive care to critically ill patients visiting our emergency department (ED), we set up and ran a specific type of emergency intensive care unit (EICU) managed by emergency physician (EP) intensivists. We investigated whether this EICU reduced the time interval from ED arrival to ICU transfer (ED-ICU interval) without altering mortality., Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital. We collected data from ED patients who were admitted to the EICU (EICU group) and other ICUs including medical, surgical, and cardiopulmonary ICUs (other ICUs group), from August 2014 to July 2017. We compared these two groups with respect to demographic findings, including the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, ED-ICU interval, ICU mortality, and hospital mortality., Results: Among the 3440 critically ill patients who visited ED, 1815 (52.8%) were admitted to the EICU during the study period. The ED-ICU interval for the EICU group was significantly shorter than that for the other ICUs group by 27.5% (5.0 ± 4.9 vs. 6.9 ± 5.4 h, p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, the ICU mortality (odds ratio = 1.062, 95% confidence interval 0.862-1.308, p = 0.571) and hospital mortality (odds ratio = 1.093, 95% confidence interval 0.892-1.338, p = 0.391) of the EICU group were not inferior to those of the other ICUs group., Conclusions: The EICU run by EP intensivists reduced the time interval from ED arrival to ICU transfer without altering hospital mortality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest H. J., Y. S. J., G. J. S., W. Y. K., K. S. K., T. K., S. M. S., M. W. K., and M. S. L. report no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: An accurate disease severity score that can quickly predict the prognosis of patients with sepsis in the emergency department (ED) can aid clinicians in distributing resources appropriately or making decisions for active resuscitation measures. This study aimed to compare the prognostic performance of quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) with that of other disease severity scores in patients with septic shock presenting to an ED., Methods: We performed a prospective, observational, registry-based study. The discriminative ability of each disease severity score to predict 28-day mortality was evaluated in the overall cohort (which included patients who fulfilled previously defined criteria for septic shock), the newly defined sepsis subgroup, and the newly defined septic shock subgroup., Results: A total of 991 patients were included. All disease severity scores had poor discriminative ability for 28-day mortality. The sequential organ failure assessment and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II scores had the highest area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) values, which were significantly higher than the AUC values of other disease severity scores in the overall cohort and the sepsis and septic shock subgroups. The discriminative ability of each disease severity score decreased as the mortality rate of each subgroup increased., Conclusions: All disease severity scores, including qSOFA, did not display good discrimination for 28-day mortality in patients with serious infection and refractory hypotension or hypoperfusion; additionally, none of the included scoring tools in this study could consistently predict 28-day mortality in the newly defined sepsis and septic shock subgroups., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: To investigate whether the relationship between heart rate and neurological outcome is independent of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) and whether heart rate is related to hemodynamic instability post-cardiac arrest., Methods: Retrospective review of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest registry was performed. The primary exposure was heart rate quartiles at 24 h post-cardiac arrest. The primary outcome was a poor neurological outcome, which was defined as having a cerebral performance category (CPC) of 3-5 at 28 days. Secondary outcomes were mean blood pressure and serum lactate at 24 h and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores at admission., Results: In total, 155 patients were enrolled. The proportion of patients with a poor CPC was significantly greater in higher heart rate quartiles; similar results were observed in patients who did and did not undergo TH. Serum lactate levels at 24 h were significantly higher in the 3rd and 4th quartile groups than in the 1st quartile group. Additionally, SOFA scores were significantly higher in the 4th quartile group than in the 1st and 3rd quartile groups., Conclusions: Relative tachycardia is associated with poor neurological outcomes in post-cardiac arrest patients, independent of TH, and with higher serum lactate levels and admission SOFA scores., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: We conducted this study to investigate whether ESI combined with qSOFA score (ESI+qSOFA) predicts hospital outcome better than ESI alone in the emergency department (ED)., Methods: This was a retrospective study for patients aged over 15years who visited an ED of a tertiary referral hospital from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2015. We calculated and compared predictive performances of ESI alone and ESI+qSOFA for prespecified outcomes. The primary outcome was hospital mortality, and the secondary outcome was composite outcome of in-hospital mortality and ICU admission. We calculated in-hospital mortality rates by positive qSOFA in each subgroup divided according to ESI levels (1, 2, 3, 4+5)., Results: 43,748 patients were enrolled. The area under receiver-operating characteristics curves were higher in ESI+qSOFA than in ESI alone for both mortality and composite outcome (0.786 vs. 0.777, P<.001 for mortality; 0.778 vs. 0.774, P<.001 for composite outcome). In each subgroup divided by ESI levels, patients with positive qSOFA had significantly higher in-hospital mortality rate compared to those with negative qSOFA (20.4% vs. 14.7%, P=.117 in ESI level 1 subgroup; 11.3% vs. 2.7%, P=.001 in ESI level 2 subgroup; 2.3% vs. 0.4%, P<.001 in ESI level 3 subgroup; 0.0% vs. 0.0% in ESI level 4 or 5 subgroup)., Conclusion: The prognostic performance of ESI+qSOFA for in-hospital mortality was significantly higher than that of ESI alone. Within each subgroup, patients with positive qSOFA had higher in-hospital mortality compared to those with negative qSOFA., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the 1-year survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients with malignancy was different from that of those without malignancy., Methods: All adult OHCA patients were retrospectively analyzed in a single institution for 6years. The primary outcome was 1-year survival, and secondary outcomes were sustained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), survival to hospital admission, survival to discharge and discharge with a good neurological outcome (CPC 1 or 2). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis were performed to test the effect of malignancy., Results: Among 341 OHCA patients, 59 patients had malignancy (17.3%). Sustained ROSC, survival to admission, survival to discharge and discharge with a good CPC were not different between the two groups. The 1-year survival rate was lower in patients with malignancy (1.7% vs 11.4%; P=0.026). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that patients with malignancy had a significantly lower 1-year survival rate when including all patients (n=341; P=0.028), patients with survival to admission (n=172, P=0.002), patients with discharge CPC 1 or 2 (n=18, P=0.010) and patients with discharge CPC 3 or 4 (n=57, P=0.008). Malignancy was an independent risk factor for 1-year mortality in the Cox proportional hazard regression analysis performed in patients with survival to admission and survival to discharge., Conclusions: Although survival to admission, survival to discharge and discharge with a good CPC rate were not different, the 1-year survival rate was significantly lower in OHCA patients with malignancy than in those without malignancy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: We performed this study to investigate whether real-time tidal volume feedback increases optimal ventilation and decreases hyperventilation during manikin-simulated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)., Basic Procedures: We developed a new real-time tidal volume monitoring device (TVD) which estimated tidal volume in real time using a magnetic flowmeter. The TVD was validated with a volume-controlled mechanical ventilator with various tidal volumes. We conducted a randomized, crossover, manikin-simulation study in which 14 participants were randomly divided into a control (without tidal volume feedback, n = 7) and a TVD group (with real-time tidal volume feedback, n = 7) and underwent manikin simulation. The optimal ventilation was defined as 420-490 mL of tidal volumes for a 70-kg adult manikin. After 2 weeks of the washout period, the simulation was repeated via the participants' crossover., Main Findings: In the validation study, 97.6% and 100% of the difference ratios in tidal volumes between the mechanical ventilator and TVD were within ±1.5% and ±2.5%, respectively. During manikin-simulated CPR, TVD use increased the proportion of optimal ventilation per person. Its median values (range) of the control group and the TVD group were 37.5% (0.0-65.0) and 87.5% (65.0-100.0), respectively, P < .001). TVD use also decreased hyperventilation. The proportions of hyperventilation in the control group and the TVD group were 25.0% vs 8.9%, respectively (P < .001)., Principal Conclusions: Real-time tidal volume feedback using the new TVD guided the rescuers to provide optimal ventilation and to avoid hyperventilation during manikin-simulated CPR., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effect of case volume on targeted temperature management (TTM) performance, incidence of adverse events, and neurologic outcome in comatose out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survivors treated with TTM., Methods: We used a Web-based, multicenter registry (Korean Hypothermia Network registry), to which 24 hospitals throughout the Republic of Korea participated to study adult (≥18 years) comatose out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients treated with TTM between 2007 and 2012. The primary outcome was neurologic outcome at hospital discharge. The secondary outcomes were inhospital mortality, TTM performance, and adverse events. We extracted propensity-matched cohorts to control for bias. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess independent risk factors for neurologic outcome., Results: A total of 901 patients were included in this study; 544 (60.4%) survived to hospital discharge, and 248 (27.5%) were discharged with good neurologic outcome. The high-volume hospitals initiated TTM significantly earlier and had lower rates of hyperglycemia, bleeding, hypotension, and rebound hyperthermia. However, neurologic outcome and inhospital mortality were comparable between high-volume (27.7% and 44.6%, respectively) and low-volume hospitals (21.1% and 40.5%) in the propensity-matched cohorts. The adjusted odds ratio for the high-volume hospitals compared with low-volume hospitals was 1.506 (95% confidence interval, 0.875-2.592) for poor neurologic outcome., Conclusions: Higher TTM case volume was significantly associated with early initiation of TTM and lower incidence of adverse events. However, case volume had no association with neurologic outcome and inhospital mortality., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) is a rare disease. Furthermore, Brown-Séquard syndrome due to spontaneous SEH has been rarely reported. Early detection of spontaneous SEH is not easy because early symptoms are often atypical and neurologic findings are often absent in the early stage. Early diagnosis and urgent surgical management are needed to prevent permanent neurologic deficits. We report a case of a 30-year-old patient who presented with Brown-Séquard syndrome due to spontaneous SEH. The patient has recovered successfully without any complications through surgical decompression within 12 hours of onset.

Objectives: Abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography (A-CECT) is widely used in emergency departments despite the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy. We attempted to develop a risk stratification nomogram for nephropathy in patients receiving emergency A-CECT., Methods: Seven hundred fifty patients who received emergency A-CECT between August 2003 and January 2007, with available serum creatinine (SCr) measurements before and after A-CECT were included. Nephropathy was defined as either an absolute increase of 0.5 mg/dL or greater (44 μmol/L) or a relative increase of 25% or more in the SCr from baseline. A nomogram was developed based on multivariate logistic regression analysis using clinical variables available before A-CECT. The model was internally validated with a bootstrapping method, and performance was assessed by area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) and calibration curve., Results: Nephropathy was observed in 34 of 750 patients. A nomogram was developed using age (odds ratio, 1.04 per 1-year increment) and baseline SCr (odds ratio, 2.51 per 1-mg/dL increment) as risk factors. Diagnostic accuracy of the model was fair by bias-corrected calibration plot. The AUC of the model was 0.794 (95% confidence interval, 0.734-0.854), and the AUC with bootstrapping samples of 200 repetitions was 0.794 (95% confidence interval, 0.737-0.851)., Conclusion: The risk of nephropathy after emergency A-CECT can be individually predicted by internally validated nomogram using clinical variables available before the procedure., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Hemoperfusion is an effective method for removing paraquat from the body. However, the need for special equipment and personnel to perform hemoperfusion limits its applicability in the emergency department. A portable, user-friendly extracorporeal life support system (Twin Pulse Life Support [T-PLS]) capable of producing dual pulsatile flow by an electromechanical blood pump has recently been developed. We compared the effects of hemoperfusion using traditional and dual-pulsatile pumps in a paraquat-intoxicated canine model. We hypothesized that T-PLS would be as effective as nonpulsatile hemoperfusion in reducing plasma and tissue paraquat levels., Methods: Twelve adult male mongrel dogs were randomly assigned to hemoperfusion using a standard nonpulsatile pump (n = 6) or the T-PLS (n = 6). Paraquat intoxication was induced by intramuscular injection of paraquat (30 mg/kg). One hour after paraquat administration, hemoperfusion was performed for 4 hours at a flow rate of 125 mL/min. Periodic hemodynamic, chemical, and hematologic parameters as well as paraquat blood levels were obtained before and during the experiment. All animals were euthanized after completing 4 hours of hemoperfusion, and tissue levels of paraquat were determined., Results: During hemoperfusion, hemodynamic parameters including aortic blood pressure, heart rate, rectal temperature, and SaO(2) showed no significant difference between the T-PLS group and the nonpulsatile pump groups. Chemical and hematologic parameters such as serum electrolytes, platelet level, creatinine concentration, the ratio of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) to creatinine, alanine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransferase (ALS/AST) levels, and plasma hemoglobin concentration as an indicator of hemolysis also showed no between-group differences. Plasma paraquat concentrations and lung and kidney tissue paraquat concentrations were also similar in both groups., Conclusions: In this experimental canine study, T-PLS was as effective as traditional nonpulsatile hemoperfusion in reducing plasma and tissues paraquat levels. There were also no differences in hemodynamic, chemical, and hematologic parameters between the groups. Hemoperfusion using T-PLS may play a role as an alternative method for treating patients with paraquat poisoning.