Cardiac Arrest Survival Rate Varies by Region, Study Shows

The survival chances of people who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital vary from region to region throughout the U.S. and Canada, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Boston Globe reports. For the study, researchers from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium examined the number and outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests over 10 locations in the U.S. and Canada, covering a population of about 21.4 million people. Researchers found a total of 20,520 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, with a 4.6% overall survival rate (Cortez, Boston Globe, 9/24).

According to the study, resuscitation was not attempted in 42% of the cases assessed by emergency medical personnel. Of the 11,898 patients on whom resuscitation was attempted, 7.9% survived long enough to be discharged from the hospital. However, survival rates varied greatly from region to region. The top four survival rates were in Seattle (16.3%), Iowa communities (11%), Portland, Ore. (10.6%) and Milwaukee and Vancouver (tied at 9.7%). The lowest four survival rates were in Alabama (3%), Dallas (4.5%), Ottawa (5.3%) and Toronto (5.5%) (Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/24).

The researchers estimated that about 15,000 deaths from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests could be avoided annually if community leaders improve results in low-performing areas (Boston Globe, 9/24). According to the researchers, between 166,000 and 310,000 U.S. residents experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year. Clifton Callaway, the study's co-author and associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said out-of-hospital cardiac arrests make up about two-thirds of all cardiac arrests in the U.S. annually (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/24).

Little Improvement
The researchers noted that little improvement has been made considering survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the past 30 years (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/24). According to Graham Nichol, director of the center for pre-hospital emergency care at the University of Washington, the first step toward improvement is for hospitals and emergency service providers to report the number of patients who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests to health offices, such as CDC, at the local and national levels. Nichol said the number of attacks currently is not tracked in a systematic manner, which makes improvement difficult (Boston Globe, 9/24).

The study is available online.