Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 68, Issue 3, March 2006, Pages 351-358
Resuscitation

CLINICAL PAPER
In-hospital cardiac arrest—An Utstein style report of seven years experience from the Sahlgrenska University Hospital

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2005.07.011Get rights and content

Summary

Background

In-hospital cardiac arrest is one of the most stressful situations in modern medicine. Since 1997, there has been a uniform way of reporting – the Utstein guidelines for in-hospital cardiac arrest reporting.

Material and methods

We have studied all consecutive cardiac arrest in the Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU) between 1994 and 2001 for who the rescue team was alerted in all 833 patients. The primary endpoint for this study was survival to discharge.

Results

Thirty-seven percent survived to hospital discharge. Among patients who were discharged alive, 86% were alive 1 year later. The survivors have a good cerebral outcome (94% among those who were discharged alive had cerebral performance category (CPC) score 1 or 2). The organization at SU is efficient; 80% of the cardiac arrest had CPR within 1 min. Time from cardiac arrest to first defibrillation is a median of 2 min. Almost two-thirds of the patients were admitted for cardiac related diagnoses.

Conclusion

The current study is the largest single-centre study of in hospital cardiac arrest reported according to the Utstein guidelines. We report a high survival for in-hospital cardiac arrest. We have pointed out that a functional chain of survival, short intervals before the start of CPR and defibrillation are probably contributing factors for this.

Introduction

Cardiac arrest in the hospital environment is one of the most stress filled situations in medical practice. Every minute counts. This area of research has had the same problem in reporting as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. For the latter, there has been a uniform way of reporting since 1990 – the Utstein guidelines. The advantages of a uniform nomenclature are obvious and the in-hospital Utstein guidelines were created in 1997.1 Since then several studies have been published,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 although some were based on small numbers2, 7 or only patients found in ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF).6 The field is in need of more research to clarify epidemiology, outcome and factors associated with survival. Therefore, have we conducted this study of all consecutive in-hospital cardiac arrests for whom resuscitation was started in Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU), situated in Gothenburg, Sweden between 1 November 1994 and 31 December 2001.

The aim of the study is to describe the outcome of patients suffering in-hospital cardiac arrest according to the Utstein style. We have previously reported from this registry at an earlier stage but not in the Utstein style of reporting.9, 10, 11, 12

Section snippets

Methods – general

We have collected the data in a prospective way, recording various factors at resuscitation including the time when the CPR team was alerted. We then conducted a retrospective evaluation of the medical records of patients’ previous history and final outcome.

Template

We report an overall survival to discharge of 34% (310/910) of the arrests. There were 833 patients who in all had 910 cardiac arrests. Out of the 833 patients, 310 survived to discharge, a survival rate of 37% (310/833). Out of the 523 patients who died, 435 (83%) died within 24 h after collapse. See Template 1.

Cerebral performance category (CPC) score (Figure 1)

The CPC scores prior to the cardiac arrest for the whole group (N = 833) was as follows: 87% had CPC score of 1, 7% has CPC score 2. Corresponding figures for survivors are shown in Figure

General results – template

Ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia was recorded as the initial rhythm in almost 49% of the arrests. This is a high figure in comparison with other reported VT/VF rates. Previous Utstein-reports have found VT/VF to occur in between 8 and 33%.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 We do not know why the rate VT/VF is higher in Sahlgrenska, however, we can conclude that the intervals from collapse to defibrillation are comparable with others.5 A possible reason can be a functional DNAR policy, and it is

Conclusion

This single-centre study is by far the largest Utstein style report for cardiac arrest in hospital. The overall survival rate for in-hospital cardiac arrest among patients for whom the resuscitation team was called was 37%. This rate of survival is very high in comparison with other Utstein reports of in hospital cardiac arrest ranging from 8 to 26%.2, 3, 4, 8, 15 A combination of factors can contribute to this, including the high percentage of patients found in VT/VF, a functional DNAR policy,

Acknowledgements

This study was made possible by grants from the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation and Göteborgs Läkaresällskap.

References (21)

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A Spanish translated version of the summary of this article appears as Appendix in the online version at 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2005.07.011.

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