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Citation
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Idris AH, Berg RA, Bierens JJLM, Bossaert L, Branche CM, Gabrielli A, Graves SA, Handley AJ, Hoelle R, Morley PT, Papa L, Pepe PE, Quan L, Szpilman D, Wigginton JG, Modell JH. Circulation 2003; 108(20): 2565-2574. |
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Abstract
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Consensus Conference on Drowning
This document presents the consensus of a group of international investigators who met to establish guidelines for the uniform reporting of data from studies of drowning incidents. The consensus process consisted of formal discussions at 3 international meetings as well as expert review, endorsements from multiple organizations, and invited recommendations from other interested parties. The concept of using consensus workshops to formulate guidelines is not new. Similar consensus guidelines for reporting surveillance and resuscitation research have been developed for both adult and pediatric cardiac arrest.1–3
The principal purpose of the recommendations in this advisory is to establish consistency in the reporting of drowning-related studies, both in terms of nomenclature and guidelines for reporting data. These recommendations are intended to improve the clarity of scientific communication and the comparability of scientific investigations. Improved clarity and comparability of future scientific reports will advance the clinical and epidemiological knowledge base. In turn, such studies can help identify appropriate prevention strategies as well as the best treatment for victims of drowning and can ultimately save lives.
History of the Utstein Style
Laboratory and clinical investigators from many different specialties contribute to the multidisciplinary knowledge base of injury prevention and resuscitation science. Although diversity can be a strength, it can also be an obstacle because of the lack of a common language and communication between investigators from different backgrounds.
In response to these problems, in June 1990 an international group of scientists concerned with research involving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest met at the Utstein Abbey in Stavanger, Norway. Participants discussed the lack of standardized nomenclature and definitions as a key problem in research reports. A second meeting, the Utstein Consensus Conference, was held in December 1990 in Brighton, England. Recommendations from this follow-up conference were published simultaneously in American and European journals.4,5 The report included uniform definitions, terminology, and recommended data sets (the “Utstein style”) to assist clinical investigators in reporting human resuscitation studies. With the benefit of 10 years of use and experience, the recommendations for out-of-hospital resuscitation were recently reviewed at a conference in Melbourne, Australia, revised, and simplified for update in a future publication.
The issues discussed at the first Utstein style consensus conferences are common to other disciplines concerned with resuscitation. Accordingly, since that time, many other Utstein style meetings have been organized to discuss such issues.6–11 Drowning is another important problem in resuscitation research that shares many of the same nomenclature and reporting problems. Drowning victims often require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or other interventions by emergency medical systems. Drowning research is based on clinical events, time intervals and points, pathophysiological changes, autopsy findings, and other observations common to cardiac arrest and CPR research. |