Initial documented rhythm as a predictor of survivalto-discharge rate after in-hospital cardiac arrest in a tertiary care referral institute, South India: an observational study

Survival-to-discharge rates following in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) patients remain significantly low. The use of initial documented cardiac rhythm as predictor of Survival-to-discharge is still unclear. This study aimed to assess whether the initial documented rhythm can be used as a predictor of survival-to-discharge following IHCA in an emergency department of the tertiary care referral institute, south India.

This observational study was conducted for six months from January to June 2017 among all patients above 12 years, with witnessed cardiac arrest after arrival at the emergency department. After obtaining informed consent from the patients’ caregivers, data of socio-demographic details, previous relevant medical history, initial documented rhythm, neurologic status and survival-to-discharge were collected and analyzed.

The mean age of participants was 50 ± 17.15 years. Of the 252 study participants, 77.4% had non-shockable and 22.6% had shockable rhythm as initial documented rhythm. The overall survival-to-discharge rate was 17.5% (n=44) in our study. The overall proportion of participants who survived to discharge after IHCA was higher among participants with shockable rhythm (16/57, 28%) in comparison to participants with non-shockable rhythm (28/195, 14.3%). These differences were found to be statistically significant. Among the patients with shockable rhythm, 61.1% had good cerebral performance.

Survival-to-discharge rates after IHCA can be predicted based on the initial documented cardiac rhythm. Early identification of patients with impending cardiac arrest and providing prompt management of patients with cardiac arrest will improve the survival rates significantly