Early termination of resuscitation in in‐hospital cardiac arrest and impact to the outcome calculations

Background Some in‐hospital resuscitation attempts are assessed futile and terminated early on. We hypothesized that if these cases are reported separately, the true outcome of in‐hospital cardiac arrest is better reflected. Methods We conducted a 3‐year prospective observational Utstein‐style study in Tampere, Finland. All adult in‐hospital cardiac arrests outside critical care areas attended by hospital's rapid response team were included. Resuscitation attempts that were terminated within 10 minutes were considered early terminations. Results The cohort consisted of 199 in‐hospital cardiac arrest patients. Twenty‐seven (14%) resuscitation attempts were terminated early due to the presumed futility of the attempt with median resuscitation duration of 5 (4, 7) minutes. These cases and the 172 patients with full resuscitation attempt were of comparable age, sex and comorbidity. Early terminated resuscitation attempts were more often unwitnessed (63% vs. 10%, P < .001) with initial non‐shockable rhythm (100% vs. 80%, P = .006) when compared with full attempts. The most frequently reported reasons for termination decisions were non‐witnessed arrest presenting asystole as initial rhythm and severe acute illness. The hospital survival with good neurological outcome and 1‐year survival were 30% and 25% for the whole cohort, and 34% and 29% when early terminated resuscitation attempts were excluded. Conclusion One‐seventh of resuscitation attempts were terminated early on due to presumed futility of the attempt. Short‐ and long‐term outcomes were 5% and 4% better when early terminated attempts were excluded from the outcome analyses. We believe that in‐hospital cardiac arrest outcome is not as poor as repeatedly presented in the literature.