Cardiac arrest study says mortality depends on location

Cardiac arrest has a 70 to 80 percent mortality rate and affects almost half a million people per year. From CPR to faster emergency services, various methods have been used to lower those numbers.

But according to a new School of Medicine study, other factors need to be taken into account - research found that the survival rate of cardiac arrest patients also depends on where the patient is taken for care.

The study says there is a variability in cardiac arrest outcomes depending on the teaching status, location and size of the hospital.

According to the study, large, urban and teaching hospitals are crucial for maximizing a patient's chances of surviving without any impairment or neurological problems.

The study, which was released earlier this month, was led by Brendan Carr, professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology and associate director of the Division of Emergency Care Policy and Research.

Cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction - also known as heart attack - are not the same thing, Carr stressed. Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating. It can stem from a heart attack, but can also be caused by other factors.

With cardiac arrest, there is a high possibility that patients do not wake up or are seriously impaired.

Senior author Robert Neumar, professor of Emergency Medicine and associate director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science and chair of the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee for the American Heart Association, said that in working on the study, he wanted to focus on how to get the heart to restart, keep patients alive and optimize their chances for a good neurological outcome.

Carr said the study provides insight into how to improve cardiac arrest treatment.

"We did not really concentrate on solutions," he said. "Instead, we focused on showing and highlighting the problem."

First, Carr said, hospitals in the area need to be brought up to speed on how to treat cardiac arrest most effectively. This can be achieved by determining effective ways to disseminate knowledge about cardiac arrest.

The other idea is to allow local hospitals to designate a center where patients can be sent when they are suffering from cardiac arrest, Carr said.

He believes this research is a meaningful beginning to providing quicker medical cares for other diseases as well.

"I hope this will serve as an example of treating diseases requiring resource-intensive and emergency care," Carr added.

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