Improving Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Outcomes: A Valentine Worth Sending

Survival Rates Remain Disheartening Each year nearly 568 500 sudden cardiac arrests occur in the United States. Of these, approximately 359400 (63%) are out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) and 209 000 (37%) are in-hospital cardiac arrests. Of the nearly 360 000 cardiac arrests that happen outside hospitals, 88% occur in the home. If effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be delivered immediately after cardiac arrest, the victim’s probability of survival is doubled or tripled. However, despite decades of research, the instruction of millions of laypersons and professional heath care providers, countless public service announcements, and national programs provided by organizations such as the AHA and American Red Cross, only 32% to 40% of OHCAs are responded to with bystander CPR. Among all OHCA victims, only 8% to 9.5% survive to hospital discharge. A few distinctions between out-of-hospital and in-hospital patient populations are worth noting. An OHCA can be defined as “cessation of cardiac mechanical activity that occurs outside of the hospital setting and is confirmed by the absence of signs of circulation.” Although it may develop from a variety of noncardiac etiologies such as trauma or drug overdose, a substantial majority of OHCAs is attributable to cardiac causes. An in-hospital cardiac arrest occurs in a hospital and typically includes resuscitation efforts such as defibrillation, chest compressions, or both. As admission to a hospital becomes Editorial