Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: outcome and its predictors among hospitalized elderly patients in Egypt

Our aim was to study the outcome and the predictors of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among elderly patients admitted to Ain Shams University Hospitals, Egypt.

We carried out a cross-sectional study for all elderly patients (age ≥60 years) who underwent CPR after cardiac arrest at Ain Shams University Hospitals, Egypt, during a 1.5-year study period. We excluded patients who were declared dead on arrival.

We found 380 cases of elderly in-hospital cardiac arrest that underwent CPR. Asystole was the most common arrhythmia detected at the time of arrest (85.1%), followed by ventricular tachycardia (8.7%) and ventricular fibrillation (6.2%). Return of spontaneous circulation was achieved in 32.6% of patients and 8.4% survived to discharge from hospital. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified three independent predictors of better outcome (survival >24 h): response time ≤5 min (OR 5.1, 95% CI 1.9-13.4), location of CPR in emergency department (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.6-6.4) and pre-arrest morbidity (PAM) score ≤7 (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.6-6.1).

Outcome of CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrest in our setting was poor. The response time ≤5 min, CPR in the emergency department and PAM score ≤7 were independent predictors of good outcome.