Evaluation of Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Cardiac Arrest

Abstract

Aim: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an important and common intervention in emergency settings. In this article, we aimed to determine the characteristics and outcomes of the patients on whom CPR was performed in the emergency department (ED).Materials and Methods: We retrospectively investigated the medical records of 295 patients with cardiopulmonary arrest over a two-year period. The patient’s, age, sex, arrival time, route of arrival, reasons for admission, medical history, whether CPR was performed before arrival, whether intubation was performed, whether CPR was performed after arrival, whether defibrillation was performed, whether rapid sequence intubation (RSI) was performed, outcome (death, admission to an intensive care unit, an angiography unit, or a ward), and period of hospitalization were recorded.Results: Most of the patients were brought by ambulance, and asystoly was the most common initial rhythm. In 182 patients, CPR was initiated before admission to the ED. All 26 patients with malignity died. Of the patients with a medical history of multiple diseases, 91.4% (n=32) died. RSI was performed in 19 patients (6.4%), and defibrillation was performed in 49 patients (16.6%). It was determined that 253 patients (85.8%) died after CPR.Conclusion: In our study, asystoly was found to be the most common initial rhythm in patients with cardiopulmonary arrest. Our study also revealed that patients with co-morbidity and patients requiring RSI had lower rates of survival.

Keywords

• Emergency department
• cardiac arrest
• cardiopulmonary resuscitation