Evidence-based On-call

Cardiac arrest

Prognosis

Patients are less likely to die following an in-hospital cardiac arrest if they have a cardiac cause: ^b

ventricular dysrhythmias on admission ^a

angina before admission ^a

myocardial infarction ^b

Why?

Cardiac causes reduce the risk of dying

Patient	Prognostic Factor	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNF+ (95% CI)
post-cardiac arrest ^a	ventricular dysrhythmia on admission independent	survival at discharge	20%	11.0 (4.1 to 33.7)	-2 (-3 to -1)
	angina before admission independent	survival at discharge	19%	2.1 (1.3 to 3.3)	-7 (-23 to -4)
post-cardiac arrest ^b	myocardial infarction independent	death at discharge	85%	0.53 (0.36 to 0.79)	-10 (-31 to -6)