Acute cardiac care & resuscitation

Associations between pulsed oxygen saturation during out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality and return of spontaneous circulation

ResuscitationPublished Observational analysis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest events

Authors' conclusion

Higher event-average SpO2 was associated with higher probability of unadjusted and adjusted sustained ROSC but not with neurological intact survival. Cycle-average SpO2 was not associated with chest compressions quality metrics.

Study context

Population
Index out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) events with recorded pulsed oxygen saturation (SpO2) during resuscitationindex OHCA
Participants
98 participants
Exposure
Event-average SpO2 and sustained return-of-spontaneous-circulation (ROSC)

Main finding

As reported in the abstract

Event-average SpO2

Median event-average SpO2 ([Q1, Q3])

55.0

38.8, 72.3

Observational data: associations, not effects.

Further findings

Sustained ROSC

ComparisonAdjusted odds ratio (95% CI)P value
SpO2 · after adjusting for confounders1.05 (1.02–1.08)P < 0.001

Survival to hospital admission

ComparisonAdjusted odds ratio (95% CI)P value
Event-average SpO21.03 (1.01–1.05)P = 0.005

Neurological intact survival

ComparisonAdjusted odds ratio (95% CI)P value
Event-average SpO21.00 (0.96–1.05)P = 0.79

Median

OutcomeSustained ROSCNo sustained ROSCEstimateP value
Event-level average SpO2 by sustained ROSC · higher SpO2 with sustained ROSC72.3 (IQR 57.0–82.9)48.0 (IQR 34.9–65.4)P < 0.001

SpO2 as a predictor of sustained ROSC (ROC analysis)

Area under the curve
0.77 [95% CI, 0.68-0.86]
Optimal cut point
71.0
Sensitivity
58
Specificity
0.85

Chest compressions metrics

Higher cycle-average SpO2 was not associated with better chest compressions metrics

Original publication

Associations between pulsed oxygen saturation during out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality and return of spontaneous circulation. Resuscitation. Published 23 July 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111215

Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it

Get them every week

New studies on this topic in My Week and in your Monday e-mail.

We e-mail you a sign-in link and a code. No password, no spam.