Effectiveness of a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Team with an Emergency Physician for In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Park, Hang A; Kang, Mun Ju; Cha, Won Chul; Shin, Tae Gun; Jo, Ik Joon; Song, Keun Jeong; Jeong, Yeon Kwon; Sim, Min Seob

Abstract

PURPOSE
Emergency physicians are usually more experienced in emergency situations; therefore, a cardiopulmonary resuscitation team with an emergency physician as a leader would be operated effectively. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a cardiopulmonary resuscitation that includes an emergency physician.
METHODS
A retrospective analysis for in-hospital arrests that occurred in the general ward was conducted based on the in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation registry of a tertiary care university hospital in Korea from January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2010. We compared outcomes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation performed by a team that included an emergency physician with those by a cardiopulmonary resuscitation team that included a non-emergency physician.
RESULTS
Survival rates at discharge were 29.6% for the emergency physician team and 17.7% for the non-emergency physician team. The good neurologic outcome rates at discharge were 20.6% and 10.6%, respectively. In multivariate analysis with adjustment for pre-arrest patient condition and arrest variables, survival rate did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, the good neurologic outcomes showed an association with the emergency physician team.
CONCLUSION
For in-hospital cardiac arrest, outcomes for patients who were rescued by the emergency physician-directing CPR team might be comparable or better, compared with those by the non-emergency physician team.