[Preclinical resuscitation--which factors influence the long-term course? A 5-year follow-up]

The factors that influence long-term survival after out-of-hospital resuscitations were investigated.

Between 1985 and 1989, out of a total of 8403 responded emergency calls, 505 resuscitations were undertaken out of hospital by the emergency medical service in Göppingen. All emergency calls were recorded uniformly. Of the 505 resuscitations, 154 were primarily successful (30.5%), and 58 were secondarily successful, i.e. the patients were ultimately discharged from hospital. In 56 of them the further course could be followed at least 5 years after the resuscitation (45 males, 11 females; mean age 57 [10-83] years). The patients' charts were analysed; in 51 cases data could be obtained from the family doctor, from ambulant care or from home visits.

34 patients (60.4%) were still alive 5 years after the resuscitation. The highest death rate (16%) was in the first post-resuscitation year. Prognostically unfavourable factors were: advanced age (P < 0.01), underlying cardiac disease (n = 49; P < 0.025), especially coronary heart disease (n = 34; P < 0.01). Patients with primary ventricular fibrillation and previous myocardial infarction (n = 10) had a poorer prognosis than those with acute infarction (n = 24; P < 0.05). Reduced survival chances occurred in those with impaired left ventricular function, as measured echocardiographically (P < 0.05), or with cardiac arrhythmias, Lown classes III and IV (P < 0.05), as well as in those with severe neurological sequelae (n = 8; P < 0.08).

Long-term prognosis depends, in the first instance, on the resuscitated patient's basic condition and not so much on the circumstances of the resuscitation.