SynthesisCritical care medicine2018
Estimating the False Positive Rate of Absent Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Cardiac Arrest Prognostication.
Synthesis in Critical care medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- 2025 Korean Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Part 6. Post-cardiac arrest care.Clinical and experimental emergency medicine · 2026Guideline
- European Resuscitation Council and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine guidelines 2025: post-resuscitation care.Intensive care medicine · 2025Guideline
- Guidelines for Neuroprognostication in Comatose Adult Survivors of Cardiac Arrest.Neurocritical care · 2023Guideline
- Factors Associated with Early Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatments After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Subanalysis of a Randomized Trial of Prehospital Therapeutic Hypothermia.Neurocritical care · 2023Trial
- Short-Acting Neuromuscular Blockade Improves Inter-rater Reliability of Median Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Post-cardiac arrest Prognostication.Neurocritical care · 2023Trial
- Role of Neurophysiologic Testing in Prognostication of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy.Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society · 2026Review
- Hypoxic Brain Injury Mimicking a Spinal Cord Disease: An Unusual Neurological Consequence of Cardiac Arrest.Cureus · 2025Article
- Prognostic utility of somatosensory evoked potentials in supratentorial hemorrhage-induced prolonged disorders of consciousness.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Timing of neuroprognostication in the ICU.Current opinion in critical care · 2025Review
- Review
- Cortical somatosensory evoked potential amplitudes and clinical outcome after cardiac arrest: a retrospective multicenter study.Journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Common Data Elements for Disorders of Consciousness: Recommendations from the Electrophysiology Working Group.Neurocritical care · 2023Article
- Combination of Cerebral Computed Tomography and Simplified Cardiac Arrest Hospital Prognosis (sCAHP) Score for Predicting Neurological Recovery in Cardiac Arrest Survivors.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Article
- Can we learn from hidden mistakes? Self-fulfilling prophecy and responsible neuroprognostic innovation.Journal of medical ethics · 2022Article
- Evoked and Event-Related Potentials as Biomarkers of Consciousness State and Recovery.Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society · 2022Review
- Enhancing cardiac arrest survival with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: insights into the process of death.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Review
- Brain injury after cardiac arrest: pathophysiology, treatment, and prognosis.Intensive care medicine · 2021Review
- Targeted temperature management and early neuro-prognostication after cardiac arrest.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2021Review
- European Resuscitation Council and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine guidelines 2021: post-resuscitation care.Intensive care medicine · 2021Article
- Recovery from disorders of consciousness: mechanisms, prognosis and emerging therapies.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAbsence of somatosensory evoked potentials is considered a nearly perfect predictor of poor outcome after cardiac arrest. However, reports of good outcomes despite absent somatosensory evoked potentials and high rates of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies have raised concerns that estimates of the prognostic value of absent somatosensory evoked potentials may be biased by self-fulfilling prophecies. We aimed to develop an unbiased estimate of the false positive rate of absent somatosensory evoked potentials as a predictor of poor outcome after cardiac arrest. DATA SOURCES: PubMed. STUDY SELECTION: We selected 35 studies in cardiac arrest prognostication that reported somatosensory evoked potentials. DATA EXTRACTION: In each study, we identified rates of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies and good outcomes despite absent somatosensory evoked potentials. We appraised studies for potential biases using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. Using these data, we developed a statistical model to estimate the false positive rate of absent somatosensory evoked potentials adjusted for withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies rate. DATA SYNTHESIS: Two-thousand one-hundred thirty-three subjects underwent somatosensory evoked potential testing. Five-hundred ninety-four had absent somatosensory evoked potentials; of these, 14 had good functional outcomes. The rate of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies for subjects with absent somatosensory evoked potential could be estimated in 14 of the 35 studies (mean 80%, median 100%). The false positive rate for absent somatosensory evoked potential in predicting poor neurologic outcome, adjusted for a withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies rate of 80%, is 7.7% (95% CI, 4-13%).
conclusionsAbsent cortical somatosensory evoked potentials do not infallibly predict poor outcome in patients with coma following cardiac arrest. The chances of survival in subjects with absent somatosensory evoked potentials, though low, may be substantially higher than generally believed.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.