Post out-of-hospital cardiac arrest care in a tertiary care center in southern Thailand: From emergency department to intensive care unit

Background: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest results in a high mortality rate. The 2015 American Heart Association guideline for post-cardiac arrest was launched and adopted into our institutional policy. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate post-cardiac arrest care and compare the results with the 2015 American Heart Association guideline and clinical outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. Methods Included in this study were all adult patients who survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and were admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit of Songklanagarind Hospital, Thailand. The retrospective review was from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017. Results: From a total of 161 post-cardiac arrest patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit, 69 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients were identified. The most common cause of arrest was presumed cardiac in origin (45.0%) in which the majority was acute myocardial infarction (67.8%). Coronary intervention and targeted temperature management were performed in 27.5% and 13% of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients, respectively. Survival to hospital discharge was 42%. Independent factors associated with survival to discharge were shockable rhythms, lower adrenaline doses, and the absence of hypotension at medical intensive care unit admission. Conclusion: Compliance with the 2015 American Heart Association post-cardiac arrest care guideline was low in our institution, especially in coronary intervention and targeted temperature management.