Tertiary Centres have improved Survival compared to other Hospitals in the Copenhagen Area after Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest
Resuscitation, 07/17/2012
Soholm H et al. – Admission to tertiary centres is associated with lower mortality rates after Out–of–hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) compared with non–tertiary hospitals.
Methods- Data from the Copenhagen OHCA registry from June 2002 through December 2010 included a total of 1,218 consecutive patients treated by the same mobile emergency care unit (MECU) with either return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) or on–going resuscitation (n=53) at hospital arrival.
- The MECU transported patients to the nearest hospital unless an ECG on scene suggested ST–segment elevation myocardial infarction, in which case patients were transported to the nearest tertiary centre for acute coronary angiography.
- Therefore, patients with ST–elevation myocardial infarction (n=198) were excluded from the analysis.
- 30–day mortality was 56% vs. 76% and long term (up to 8years) mortality was 78% vs. 94% for tertiary and non–tertiary hospitals, respectively, both p<0.001.
- Multivariate analysis showed that admission to a non–tertiary hospital was independently associated with increased risk of death (HR=1.32 (95% CI: 1.09–1.59, p=0.004).
- Exclusion of patients with on–going resuscitation at admission resulted in HR=1.34 (1.11–1.62), p=0.003.
- A matched pair propensity score analysis of 255 patients confirmed the results of the proportional hazard analysis (HR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.11–1.65 p=0.0
