Characteristics and outcome among patients suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with the emphasis on availability for intervention trials

Aim: To describe all patients treated for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) according to the Utstein criteria and their characteristics and outcome with emphasis on whether they were available for early intervention trials. Design: Retrospective analysis of a study where data were collected prospectively. Setting: The Municipality of Goteborg/Molndal in Sweden. Patients: All patients suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the Municipality of Goteborg/Molndal in whom cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was attempted between May 2003 and May 2005. Interventions: Part of the study cohort, i.e. patients with a witnessed, non-traumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were distributed (cluster) to mechanical (LUCAS) or manual chest compression. Results: The overall survival to discharge from hospital among the 508 patients was 8.5%. The corresponding value for non-cardiac cases was 5.1% and for cardiac cases if crew witnessed 16.1%, bystander witnessed 12.7% and non-witnessed 1.4%. Fifty-nine percent of the patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the trial and had no exclusion criteria and 9.7% of these survived to discharge. Ten percent of patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria but were excluded and 20.4% survived to discharge. Thirty-one percent of patients did not fulfil the inclusion criteria and 2.5% survived.