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Survival rates higher among patients receiving basic life support

For patients being treated with out-of-hospital life support for major trauma, stroke or respiratory failure, treatment with basic life support, rather than advanced life support, improved outcomes, according to recently published data.

“Our findings suggest that survival is longer with [basic life support] and that [basic life support] may also offer benefits for nonfatal outcomes,” Prachi Sanghavi, PhD, department of public health sciences, University of Chicago, and colleagues wrote. 

Sanghavi and colleagues analyzed claim data from a 20% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries to compare outcomes between basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ALS) during out-of-hospital medical emergencies. Assessed out-of-hospital traumas included stroke, acute myocardial infarction and respiratory failure.

Results demonstrated that patients receiving BLS tended to be older, female and have more comorbidities than those receiving ALS.

Ninety-day survival rates were higher among patients with trauma, stroke and respiratory failure who had received BLS. However, patients with acute myocardial infarction who had received ALS had better 90 day survival rates.

Regardless of medical condition, patients who had received BLS had better neurological outcomes compared with patients who had received ALS, according to the researchers.

Disclosures: Sanghavi reports no relevant financial disclosures.  Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.