Factors influencing survival after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Introduction: During recent years, in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) management has received much attention. However, the rate of survival after in-hospital resuscitation in Iran hospitals is not known. Therefore, a study was designed to evaluate the outcome of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the city of Kashan, Iran, during a 6-month period during 2002. Material and methods: A prospective descriptive study was conducted on all cases of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Necessary data including the age and sex of patients, shift, time from cardiac arrest until initiating of CPR, time from cardiac arrest until defibrillation, duration and result of CPR, were recorded in a checklist. Descriptive statistics presented. Results: A total of 206 cases of CPR were attempted during the research period. The study population consisted of 59.2% males and 40.8% females. The survival rate was similar for both sexes. Short-term survival was observed in 19.9% of cases and only 5.3% survived to discharge. The key predictors of survival to hospital discharge were CPR duration, time of cardiac arrest, time from cardiac arrest to initiation of CPR, and defibrillation within the first few minutes of cardiac arrest. Conclusions: Our study showed that it needs more attention to be paid to cardiopulmonary resuscitation management in Iran's hospitals. The results of this study could be an important first step toward a national study on the survival after cardiopulmonary resuscitation to provide accurate data on our performance with regards to the chain of survival. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.