Long-term cardiac arrest survivors of the Vienna emergency medical service

The purpose of this study was to describe the life of survivors after successful resuscitation and to see if there was an association with the type of emergency cardiac care. The 'Utstein-style' data of patients surviving non-traumatic cardiac arrest 24 (14-32) months were prospectively collected. The everyday activities and psychological concerns of patients with a cerebral performance category (CPC) of 1 and 2 using a questionnaire were analyzed. The chi(2)-square test was used for statistical analysis. The questionnaires of 92 patients (median age 59, IQR 51-68; females 36) were evaluated. Patients enjoy life (84%; n = 73), have depression (36%; n = 31), consider their survival a 'second chance' (84%; n = 73) and fear that they may suffer cardiac arrest again (56%; n = 45). The average quality of life is 7 on a scale from 0 (worst) to IO (perfect). The majority of cardiac arrest survivors have a satisfactory life. No significant correlation between the type of emergency cardiac care and post cardiac arrest life was found. The fact that there was no association with the type of emergency cardiac care may be due to the narrow selection of patients (CPC 1 and 2), the small number of patients or factors contributing to post cardiac arrest life other than emergency treatment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.