Abstract

BACKGROUND
To evaluate the post-resuscitation intensive care unit outcome of patients who initially survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed patients who were admitted to the ICU after OHCA in a tertiary hospital between January, 2005 and December, 2009. We compared the patients' clinical data, the factors associated with admission and the prognosis of patients in cardiac and non-cardiac groups.
RESULTS
Sixty-four patients were included in this study. Thirty-four patients were in the cardiac group and thirty patients were in the non-cardiac group. The mean age was 57.3 +/- 15.1 years of age in the cardiac group and 61.9 +/- 15.7 years of age in the non-cardiac group (p = 0.235). The collapse-to-start of the CPR interval was 5.9 +/- 3.8 min in the cardiac group and 6.0 +/- 3.2 min in the non-cardiac group (p = 0.851). The complaint of chest pain occurred in 12 patients (35.3%) in the cardiac group and 1 patient (3.3%) in the non-cardiac group (p = 0.011). The time duration for making a decision for admission was 285.2 +/- 202.2 min in the cardiac group and 327.7 +/- 264.1 min in the non-cardiac group (p = 0.471). The regional wall motion abnormality and ejection fraction decrease were significant in the cardiac group (p = 0.002, 0.030). Grade 5 CPC was present in 8 patients (23.5%) in the cardiac group and 14 patients (46.7%) in the non-cardiac group.
CONCLUSIONS
The key symptom that could initially differentiate the two groups was chest pain. The time duration for making an admission decision was long in both groups. The CPC score of the cardiac group was lower than that for the non-cardiac group.

• Keywords: cardiac arrest;intensive care units;prehospital emergency care;prognosis;resuscitation