ARTICLE SUMMARY:
A Danish start-up’s foolproof solution for non-shockable cardiac arrest takes the guesswork out of an established transvascular technique.
Neurescue founder and CEO Habib Frost, MD, started the Copenhagen-based company predicated on his experiences as an intern assisting resuscitation teams, during which he saw the outcomes of cardiac arrest, including many “non-shockable” cases that could not be treated with defibrillation. One day, Frost witnessed two atypical patients, an infant and a woman in her 30s, each with non-shockable cardiac arrest, which shed light on a large unmet need in emergency cardiac intervention.
”All certified healthcare professionals who address cardiac arrest can determine whether a patient is shockable or non-shockable within five seconds of placing defibrillation pads based on the heart’s rhythm,” says Frost, adding that at least 80% of cardiac arrests are initially non-shockable, leading to extremely high mortality rates. To return the heart to a shockable rhythm, emergency medical personnel typically administer CPR as a means of partially replacing lost blood flow between the heart and brain. However, CPR alone only restores flow to about 35% of the pre-arrest level at most, which isn’t always sufficient to bring heart rhythm back to shockable territory.
