Infographics and visual abstracts

Infographics are visual representations of information or data that are designed to communicate complex information quickly and clearly. They typically combine text, charts, and images to present information in a way that is easy to understand and remember. Infographics are often used to convey information about topics such as science, health, business, and technology.

When they are used to summarize the contents of a research article, they are often called visual abstracts or graphical abstracts. A visual/graphical abstract is a condensed, graphical representation of a research article used to promote research articles and to make them more accessible to a wider audience. It typically includes a summary of the main points of the article, as well as visual elements such as charts, diagrams, and images, to help convey the information in a more concise and visually appealing way.

Visual abstracts are often . They can be helpful for quickly conveying the key points of a document and for providing a visual summary of the information it contains. Some scientific journals and conferences use visual abstracts as a way to promote their articles or presentations, and they are also commonly used in social media and other online platforms to promote research and other information.

In the last years, I designed numerous infographics and visual abstracts (both for my articles and on request for others’ works). On this page, you will find a collection of infographics and visual abstracts designed by me. Feel free to share and use them on social media and for your presentations with proper credits.

Collection of infographics and visual abstracts designed by Tommaso Scquizzato

Coronary angiography findings in resuscitated and refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Patients with OHCA have a high prevalence of significant CAD caused by acute and treatable coronary lesions. Refractory OHCA was associated with more severe coronary lesions. CAD was also present in patients with nonshockable rhythm and without ST elevation.

Prehospital FAST: A systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis

Prehospital FAST had a low sensitivity but a very high specificity to identify hemoperitoneum and reduced time-to-diagnostics or interventions, without increasing prehospital times, in patients with a high probability of abdominal bleeding. Its effect on mortality is still under-investigated.


Refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A meta-analysis of randomized trials

Extracorporeal CPR compared with conventional CPR increased survival with favorable neurological outcome in adults with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, especially when the initial rhythm was shockable.


Top 10 Cardiac Arrest Randomized Trials of 2022

I collected and summarized in this infographic 10 must-read randomized trials published in 2022 in the fields of cardiac arrest and CPR.


Dispatching citizens as first responders to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Scquizzato et al. Eur J Emerg Med. 2022;29(3):163-172.

Alerting citizen first responders to OHCA patients is associated with higher rates of bystander-initiated CPR, use of AED before ambulance arrival, and survival at hospital discharge or 30 days.


Extracorporeal CPR for OHCA: systematic review and meta-analysis

Scquizzato et al. Artif Organs. 2022;46(5):755-762.

Evidence from randomized trials and propensity score-matched studies suggests increased survival and favorable neurological outcome in patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Large, multicentre randomized studies are still ongoing to confirm these findings.


Impact of COVID-19 on OHCA: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Scquizzato et al. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2021;1-12.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the system-of-care of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and patients had worse short-term outcomes compared to pre-pandemic periods. Advanced airway management strategy shifted from endotracheal intubation to supraglottic airway devices.


Impact of COVID-19 on OHCA: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Scquizzato et al. Eur J Emerg Med. 2021;28(6):423-431.

One-fifth of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients had SARS-CoV-2 infection. These patients had low rates of return of spontaneous circulation and survival and were characterized by higher nonshockable rhythms but similar bystander-initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation rate.


New Early Warning Score: EMS Off-Label Use in Out-of-Hospital Patients

Semeraro et al. J Clin Med. 2021;10(12):2617.

This study showed that the use of NEWS in the urgent and emergency care services can help patient assessment while not affecting EMS crew operation and might assist decision making in terms of severity-code assignment and resources utilization.


Top 10 Cardiac Arrest Randomized Trials of 2021

I collected and summarized in this infographic 10 must-read randomized trials published in 2021 in the fields of cardiac arrest and CPR.


Hypothermia versus Normothermia after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Dankiewicz et al. N Engl J Med. 2021;384(24):2283-2294.

In patients with coma after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, targeted hypothermia did not lead to a lower incidence of death by 6 months than targeted normothermia.


Volatile Anesthetics versus Total Intravenous Anesthesia for Cardiac Surgery

Landoni et al. N Engl J Med. 2019;380(13):1214-1225.

Among patients undergoing elective CABG, anesthesia with a volatile agent did not result in significantly fewer deaths at 1 year than total intravenous anesthesia.


Rocuronium vs Succinylcholine in Prehospital Endotracheal Intubation Success

Guihard et al. JAMA. 2019;322(23):2303-2312.

Among patients undergoing endotracheal intubation in an out-of-hospital emergency setting, rocuronium, compared with succinylcholine, failed to demonstrate noninferiority with regard to first-attempt intubation success rate.

Balanced Crystalloids versus Saline in Critically and Noncritically Ill Adults

Semler et al. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(9):829-839.
Self et al. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(9):819-828.

Among critically ill adults, the use of balanced crystalloids for intravenous fluid administration resulted in a lower rate of the composite outcome of death from any cause, new renal-replacement therapy, or persistent renal dysfunction than the use of saline. Among noncritically ill adults treated with intravenous fluids in the emergency department, there was no difference in hospital-free days between treatment with balanced crystalloids and treatment with saline.


ERC-ESICM guidelines on temperature control after cardiac arrest in adults

Nolan et al. Resuscitation. 2022;172:229-236.

The aim of these guidelines is to provide evidence‑based guidance for temperature control in adults who are comatose after resuscitation from either in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, regardless of the underlying cardiac rhythm. These guidelines replace the recommendations on temperature management after cardiac arrest included in the 2021 post-resuscitation care guidelines co-issued by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM).


Carbon Dioxide Changes during High-flow Nasal Oxygenation in Apneic Patients

Riva et al. Anesthesiology. 2022;136(1):82-92.

Widely differing flow rates of humidified 100% oxygen during apnea resulted in comparable increases of arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide, which does not support an additional ventilatory effect of high-flow nasal oxygenation.


Transferring nursing home residents to EDs by emergency physician-staffed EMS

Lemoyne et al. Acta Clin Belg. 2022;1-8.

Improved EMS dispatch centre-NH caller interaction, more involvement of GP’s, higher availability of DNR orders and better communication between GPs/NHs and EP-EMS could prevent inappropriate interventions, futile prehospital aactions,and ED transfers.


Optimisation of airway management strategies: a prospective before-and-after study on events related to airway management

Pedersen et al.  Br J Anaesth. 2021;127(5):798-806.

Implementation of changes to departmental strategies for airway management significantly reduced cases with events related to airway management. Analysis of events and implementation of strategies that specifically target identified issues might be key to improving airway management.


Characteristics, treatment, outcomes and cause of death of invasively ventilated patients with COVID-19 ARDS in Milan, Italy

Zangrillo et al. Crit Care Resusc. 2020


Pizza in adults and grape in children are the most frequent causes of foreign body airway obstruction in Italy. A national media-based survey

Landoni et al. Resuscitation. 2020;149:141-142.


A Randomized Trial of Epinephrine in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Perkins et al. N Engl J Med. 2018;379(8):711-721.

n adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the use of epinephrine resulted in a significantly higher rate of 30-day survival than the use of placebo, but there was no significant between-group difference in the rate of a favorable neurologic outcome because more survivors had severe neurologic impairment in the epinephrine group.


Infographics of ongoing RCTs at San Raffaele Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit

ESICM LIVES 2019 infographics

SMACC conference infographics