Cardiac arrest: a follow-up study.

Seventy-five patients, who, between January and December 1979, were resuscitated after an out-of-hospital episode of ventricular fibrillation, were followed up for a mean period of 30 months after their initial admissions to hospital. There was a high occurrence rate (26%) of unexpected "sudden" death at the end of the three-year follow-up period. Intracardiac electrophysiological studies, or stress electrocardiographic and Holter electrocardiographic monitoring to determine the effectiveness of antiarrhythmic prophylaxis, were carried out in only nine patients. Only eight of the 63 patients (13%) who left hospital had acquaintances who were trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The findings suggest the need for some determination of the efficacy of antiarrhythmic prophylaxis in these patients, and for the education of the friends and relatives of such patients in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.