Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in elderly patients. Belgian Cerebral Resuscitation Study Group.

STUDY OBJECTIVES

To study whether age of the cardiac arrest patient is related to prognostic factors and survival.

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of a prospective registration of cardiac arrest events in the mobile ICUs of seven participating hospitals.

STUDY POPULATION

Two thousand seven hundred seventy-six out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in which advanced life support was initiated. Cardiac arrests with a precipitating event requiring specific therapeutic consequences and with specific prognosis were not included in the analysis (eg, trauma, exsanguination, drowning, sudden infant death syndrome).

RESULTS

Neither resuscitation rate (23%) nor mortality caused by a neurologic reason (9%) was significantly different between age groups. Mortality after CPR of non-neurologic etiology was significantly higher in the elderly patient (younger than 40 years, 16%; 40 to 69 years, 19%; 70 to 79 years, 30%; 80 years or older, 34%; P less than .005) and had a negative effect on survival in resuscitated elderly patients (P less than .05). Elderly patients more frequently had a dependent lifestyle before the arrest (P less than .025), an arrest of cardiac origin (P less than .001), electromechanical dissociation as the type of cardiac arrest (P less than .025), and a shorter duration of advanced life support in unsuccessful resuscitation attempts (r = -.178, P less than .0001).

CONCLUSION

Because survival two weeks after CPR was not significantly different between age groups, we suggest that decision making in CPR should not be based on age but on factors with better predictive power for outcome and quality of survival.