J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2023 Aug;34(4):297-304.

The impact of COVID-19 through epidemiological changes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients: a study in a single emergency medical center

• Kim KW
• Choi SB
• Lee HJ
• Jung YY

Abstract

Objective
This study compared the epidemiological changes before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients in a single center. This study analyzed the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
Eight hundred and sixty-one out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients were included in the analysis. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients from January 20, 2018, to January 19, 2020, were used as the control group, and those between January 20, 2020, and January 19, 2022, were used as the study group. The collected data were evaluated using a Student t-test, chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis.
Results
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cardiac arrests witnessed at the field level decreased. In the transport stage, mechanical CPR increased and the method for securing the airway had many changes. Transport distances, response times, and on-scene times have increased. Survival discharge from hospital decreased from 9.5% to 5.8% (P=0.045), and good neurological outcomes decreased from 8% to 4% (P=0.017). According to multivariate logistic regression analysis, good neurological outcomes (adjusted odds ratio, 0.299; 95% confidence interval, 0.116-0.772) were significantly lower after the onset of COVID-19.
Conclusion
With the outbreak of COVID-19, there have been many changes in the pre-hospital stages of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients, and the neurological outcomes have also deteriorated. This continued throughout the pandemic period.

Keyword

COVID-19; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Outbreak