Outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a 2300-bed hospital in a developing country.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the outcome and quality of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and factors affecting the outcome.

SETTING

A 2300-bed university hospital in Thailand.

METHOD: A 1-year prospective audit according to the Utstein style.

RESULTS

A total of 639 cardiac arrests (370 male, 269 female, age 1 day-96 years, mean+/-S.D.=53.3+/-24.12 years) were included. Four hundred and thirty-three cardiac arrests (67.8%) occurred in non-monitored areas and 200 (31.3%) occurred in monitored areas. Five hundred and thirty-six cardiac arrests (84%) were witnessed. The majority of cardiac arrests occurred in medical patients (68.4%) and surgical patients (21.4%). The most common underlying causes of arrest were respiratory failure (24.7%) and septic shock (23.3%). Initial ECG rhythms were ventricular fibrillation 79 (12.4%), asystole 272 (42.6%) with pulseless electrical activity 225 (35.2%). Most patients received basic life support within 1 min (86.7%) and advanced life support (ALS) within 4 min (92.6%) but only 25% of patients received defibrillation within 3 min. Following resuscitation, 394 (61.7%) achieved restoration of spontaneous circulation and 44 patients (6.9%) survived to discharge. Only 162 post-arrest patients were treated in the critical care area. The initial survival rate was not associated with sex, age and time to ALS, but was significantly related to the monitored area.

CONCLUSION

In our setting, survival to discharge is 6.9%. Initial survival rate was strongly associated with being in a monitored area. Defibrillators and the critical care areas were insufficient.