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Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOHCA) causes 60,000 UK and 300,000 US deaths each year. Survival to hospital discharge in the developed world has historically been 7 to 10% with obvious cognitive impairment in 10% of survivors. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) and targeted temperature management (TTM) (or at least hyperthermia avoidance) have been shown to improve survival in comatose patients post OOHCA. There is no reliable method to predict poor outcome on presentation. We aimed to identify factors associated with poor outcome in our single-centre regional referral OOHCA population.

Before the introduction of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOHCA) management, survival to hospital discharge with intact neurological function was poor [1,2]. We aimed to quantify the survival and degree of neurological impairment in OOHCA patients admitted to our ICU since the adoption of post-OOHCA bundles.