Introduction. Efficient organization of measures aimed at decreasing mortality from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) warrants a clear understanding of OHCA epidemiology and performance of the prehospital care system in such cases. The study was aimed at performing respective analysis and identifying the ways for improving prehospital management of OHCA in the Republic of Crimea.Material and methods. Annual data from the Crimean OHCA and Resuscitation Registry for 2018 were utilized. All OHCA cases attended by emergency medical services (EMS) with attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) were included, regardless of cardiac arrest etiology or patients’ age (n=419). For ensuring conformity and comparability of the study results, data collection and analysis were executed in correspondence with the statements of the Utstein recommendations.Results. The overall incidence of EMS-attended OHCA in the Republic of Crimea was 673.3 per 100,000 population per year, the incidence of OHCA with attempted CPR – 21.9 per 100,000 population per year, the proportion of CPR attempts out of all OHCA cases – 3.3%. Mean patient age was 66.9 years, and 52.7% were male. The etiology was cardiac in 42.5% cases. In 71.8% cases OHCA was witnessed by EMS, in 25.5% – by a bystander before EMS arrival. Bystanders initiated CPR in 5.7% cases. The initial rhythm was asystole in 80.4% of all cases. When excluding EMS-witnessed cases, the mean EMS response time was 13 min. 5.0% patients had a sustained return of spontaneous circulation at hospital admission. Survival was associated with lower EMS response time (p=0.027), administration of shock (p<0.001) and advanced airway management with endotracheal tube or laryngeal mask (p=0.047).Conclusion. High incidence of OHCA, low rates of CPR commencement and low rates of survival from OHCA in the Republic of Crimea determine the necessity of implementing a comprehensive program to improve prehospital care in the region. Considering the critical relevance of early intervention in OHCA and the revealed low bystander CPR rate, the measures for involving community into the process of prehospital care should form the basis of this program.

Introduction. The choice of the ways for optimizing management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by emergency medical services (EMS) should be based on the evidence from existing practice of resuscitation care. The study was aimed at evaluating personal experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performance, timing of last training in resuscitation and level of self-perceived knowledge and skills of CPR among the employees of the EMS of the Republic of Crimea, as well as to assess their beliefs on significance of individual CPR procedures in terms of influence on success of resuscitation and to study their perceptions on factors that may have positive or negative impact on effectiveness of resuscitation care.Material and methods. An anonymous survey of the EMS personnel of the Republic of Crimea was conducted in July–December 2019. The questionnaire was utilized to collect demographic data, information on experience of conducting CPR for the last year, on a current practice of CPR debriefings and timing of last CPR training. The participants assessed their knowledge and skills of CPR and their perception of influence of early implementation of individual CPR procedures on success of resuscitation on a 5-point Likert scale, and indicated factors, that may limit or enhance the effectiveness of resuscitation.Results. A total of 251 specialist of the EMS participated in the survey, including 63 physicians, 129 feldshers and 4 nurses of ambulance teams, 45 dispatchers and 5 senior officers of the EMS stations, which corresponds to 28.8% of physicians, 13.0% of feldsher/nursing staff and 17.4% of dispatcher specialists of the republic. Percentage of male respondents was 35.5%, mean age — 41.5 years, mean duration of EMS work experience — 15.5 years. The mean declared number of cases of CPR conducted in the last 12 months was 2.2 (range: 0–20), and 23.5% specialists of the ambulance teams have not participated in any CPR attempt over the last year. About 60.2% respondents were trained in CPR within the last year. When compared to other specialists of ambulance teams, feldshers who work alone (without a coworker), were significantly less commonly performing a real-life resuscitation (p=0.008) or receiving training in CPR (p=0.020). Dispatchers were least covered with resuscitation training (only 33.3% were trained within the last year) and had the lowest level of CPR knowledge and skills. 25.9% of the specialists had an erroneous judgement that early drug administration and/or tracheal intubation have higher influence on success of resuscitation when compared to chest compressions and/or defibrillation. The level of knowledge and skills of CPR depend on the timing of last training (p<0.001).Conclusions. The experience of participation in real-life attempts of CPR is severely limited for considerable part of the EMS employees, and many specialists have not been trained in resuscitation for a long time. The perceptions of the EMS specialists regarding the importance of individual CPR procedures are not always compliant with the statements of current international CPR guidelines. In order to enhance the effectiveness of resuscitation care in the Republic of Crimea, it is advisable to monitor the coverage of the EMS employees with resuscitation training and the rates of their participation in resuscitation attempts, as well as to perform additional targeted training in CPR, in particular, using alternative methods of education.