Higher Survival Rates Seen for Overdose-Attributable Cardiac Arrest

MONDAY, Feb. 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For patients presenting with nonshockable rhythm, those with overdose-attributable out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OD-OHCA) have higher survival rates with good neurological outcome compared with those with OHCA from other nontraumatic causes (non-OD-OHCA), according to a study published online Jan. 31 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Aditya C. Shekhar, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues compared OD-OHCA with non-OD-OHCA among adults using data from 2017 to 2021 in the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. The main outcome of interest was survival with good neurological outcome, defined as Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) score 1 or 2. The inclusion criteria were met by 29,500 OD-OHCA cases and 338,073 non-OD-OHCA cases.

The researchers found that the OD-OHCA cohort had significantly higher unadjusted survival to hospital discharge with a CPC score of 1 or 2 (15.2 percent versus 6.9 percent in the non-OD-OHCA cohort). When the first monitored arrest rhythm was shockable, adjusted results showed comparable survival with a CPC score of 1 or 2 (28.9 versus 23.5 percent for OD-OHCA versus non-OD-OHCA); when the first monitored arrest rhythm was nonshockable, survival rates with a CPC score of 1 or 2 were significantly higher for OD-OHCA versus non-OD-OHCA (9.6 versus 3.1 percent).

"There may be a growing need to treat different causes of cardiac arrest with different techniques," senior author Ryan A. Coute, D.O., from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine, said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to OptiStatim, which was paid for statistical services related to the article.

Abstract/Full Text