J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2012 Apr;23(2):168-180.

Incidence and Outcome of Cardiac Arrest in Korea

• Lee MJ

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains a major public health issue worldwide. Published reports of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) provide widely variable results. A large number of OHCA cases occur annually and the worldwide survival rate is less than 7~12%. In Korea, the recent standardized incidence rates (SIR) of OHCA was 44.4 per 100,000 persons (24,442 persons experienced OHCA in 2009), a result similar to that reported in other countries. However, the survival-to-discharge rate was 2.4% for Emergency Medical System (EMS)-assessed OHCA and 3.6% for resuscitation-attempted OHCA. Only 0.66~1.6% of survivors were discharged with a good neurological outcome status (cerebral performance category 1 or 2). This result was very poor as compared to those of Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) study sites (8.4~11.4%), Europe (10.7%) and Japan (12%). The goal of this review was to better understand the global variability of OHCA outcomes and their determining factors in order to suggest the future direction of resuscitation research and prevention of OHCA in Korea.

Keyword

Prehospital; Heart arrest; Resuscitation; Outcome; Survival

MeSH Terms

Death, Sudden, Cardiac
Emergencies
Europe
Heart Arrest
Humans
Incidence
Japan
Korea
Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Public Health
Resuscitation
Survival Rate
Survivors