Death rates following emergency department chest pain assessment

We sought to define the rate of unexpected death from acute coronary syndrome or arrhythmia in chest pain patients directly discharged from the ED.

Retrospective audit of all chest pain patients at a tertiary ED for 7 years. Medical and post-mortem records of the deceased were reviewed with independent cardiologist adjudication to determine outcomes. Primary outcome measure was 28-day unexpected death secondary to acute coronary syndrome or arrhythmia.

During the study period, 25 924 patients presented with chest pain, 292 (1.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.99-1.01%) died within 28 days. Of these, 16 680(64%, 95% CI 63.88-64.12%) were discharged by ED, two (0.01%, 95% CI 0-0.011%) of this group died from the primary outcome.

Unexpected death is very uncommon after ED discharge of chest pain patients.