Clinical features and outcomes of in-hospital cardiac arrest in code blue events: a retrospective observational study

In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is a critical medical event with outcomes less researched compared to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This retrospective observational study aimed to investigate key aspects of IHCA epidemiology and prognosis in patients with Code Blue activation.

This retrospective observational study enrolled patients with Code Blue events in our hospital between January 2010 and October 2019. Participant characteristics, including age and sex, and IHCA characteristics, including the time of cardiac arrest, witnessed event, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), initial shockable rhythm, vital signs at 1 and 6 h before IHCA, survival to hospital discharge (SHD), and the cardiac arrest survival postresuscitation in-hospital (CASPRI) score were included in univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with SHD as the primary endpoint.

From the 293 Code Blue events that were activated during the study period, 81 participants were enrolled. Overall, the SHD rate was 28.4%, the median CPR duration was 14 (interquartile range, 6-28) min, and the rate of initial shockable rhythm was 19.8%. There were significant intergroup differences between the SHD and non-SHD groups in the CPR duration, shockable rhythm, and CASPRI score on univariate logistic regression analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the CASPRI score was the most accurate predictive factor for SHD (OR = 0.98, p = 0.006).

The CASPRI score is associated with SHD in patients with IHCA during Code Blue events. Therefore, the CASPRI score of IHCA patients potentially constitutes a simple, useful adjunctive tool for the management of post-cardiac arrest syndrome.