Cardiac arrest & resuscitation
Incessant versus recurrent refractory ventricular fibrillation: classification and prognosis in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Authors' conclusion
Different methods classifying VF shock response produced excellent agreement. Recurrent-mixed-incessant shock responses were associated with progressive decline in favorable outcome
Study context
- Population
- Out-of-hospital VF sudden cardiac arrest; refractory VF = VF requiring ≥3 defibrillation attempts1,018 refractory VF
- Participants
- 1,829 participants
- Exposure
- Recurrent vs incessant refractory VF classification methods (method 1: >5 s non-VF after shock; method 2: 6/8/10-s post-shock snapshots); patient-level subtypes recurrent only, mixed, incessant only
- Outcome
- Agreement between the two classification methods (kappa)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Agreement between classification methods (8-s snapshot for method 2)
Shock-specific kappa
0.97
Patient-level kappa
0.95
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Distribution of refractory VF subtypes
Favorable survival
P < 0.001
Original publication
Incessant versus recurrent refractory ventricular fibrillation: classification and prognosis in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Published 5 March 2026. doi:10.
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