Abstract
To determine the effect of different case definitions on reported survival following in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest, the authors reviewed the charts of 411 patients for whom a nurse completed a cardiac arrest form at a university hospital during a two-year period. Survival to discharge was 16.0% for patients who required basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (chest compression and pulmonary ventilation), 18.6% for patients who were pulseless and apneic, 23.0% for patients who were pulseless or apneic, and 28.2% for all 411 patients for whom a cardiac arrest form was completed. These results demonstrate that reported survival to discharge following in-hospital cardiac arrest varies widely depending on the case definition that is used.
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Received from the Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Ballew, K.A., Philbrick, J.T., Caven, D.E. et al. Differences in case definitions as a cause of variation in reported in-hospital CPR survival. J Gen Intern Med 9, 283–285 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599658
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599658