Cardiopulmonary resuscitation in intensive care unit and non-intensive care unit patients. Immediate and long-term...

To determine the effect of location within the hospital and preexisting electrocardiographic rhythm on the outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the cardiopulmonary resuscitation records for a 3-year period, including 668 hospitalized patients, were retrospectively reviewed.

Resuscitation was successful in only 12 patients in the intensive care unit (3.3%) and 43 patients not in the intensive care unit (14.0%), 20 of whom were on a telemetry unit. Patients who survived to discharge had similar 1-year survival rates regardless of initial hospital location, although intensive care unit patients had the best 3-year survival rate, and there were no survivors at 3-years in the group that received cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the nonmonitored hospital bed. Survival was best with an initial cardiac rhythm of ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation, but all non-ventricular tachyarrhythmias were associated with survival. Age was not an apparent factor, while survival to hospital discharge favored whites over blacks.

Futile resuscitative efforts are routinely performed in part because physicians and patients are unaware of outcome results and factors that influence survival. A wider recognition of the limitations of cardiopulmonary resuscitation should lead to advanced directives that reflect this awareness, with substantially more patients choosing not to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation.