Introduction: Few studies have focused on factors influencing long-term outcome following in-hospital cardiac arrest. The present study assesses whether long-term outcome is influenced by difference in patient factors or factors at resuscitation.
Methods: An analysis of cardiac arrest data collected from one Swedish tertiary hospital and from five Finnish secondary hospitals supplemented with data on 1 year survival. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with survival at 12 months.
Results: A total of 441 patients survived to hospital discharge following in-hospital cardiac arrest and 359 (80%) were alive at 12 months. Factors independently associated with survival [odds ratio (OR) >1 indicates increased survival and <1 decreased survival] at 12 months were; age [OR 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-0.98], renal disease (OR 0.3, CI 0.1-0.9), good functional status at discharge (OR 4.9, CI 1.3-18.9), arrest occurring at (compared with arrests on general wards) emergency wards (OR 4.7, CI 1.4-15.3), cardiac care unit (OR 2.8, CI 1.2-6.4), intensive care unit (OR 2.4, CI 1.1-5.7), ward for thoracic surgery (OR 10.2, CI 2.6-40.1) and unit for interventional radiology (OR 13.3, CI 3.4-52.0). There was no difference in initial rhythm, delay to defibrillation or delay to return of spontaneous circulation between survivors and nonsurvivors.
Conclusion: Several patient factors, mainly age, functional status and co-morbid disease, influence long-term survival following cardiac arrest in hospital. The location where the arrest occurred also influences survival, but initial rhythm, delay to defibrillation and to return of spontaneous circulation do not.