Factors Analysis of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Outcomes in the Elderly in Taiwan

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was developed in 1960 by Kouwenhoven and colleagues1. Closed-chest cardiac massage, as CPR was originally known, was used to resolve complications because of anesthesia and cardiac arrest resulting from acute coronary syndrome. Later, the procedure became commonly used to treat cardiac arrest as a result of drowning, electric shock, drug poisoning, acute myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac arrest during surgery. Kouwenhoven et al. showed that of 20 patients who received CPR, 14 survived, giving a survival rate of 70%. However, considering all modern medical advances, this figure is not so inspiring. The survival to discharge rate for patients receiving CPR in emergency units is 15–20%2, and for those not in medical facilities, it is lower than 5%3. Despite this, CPR is still a standard procedure used on patients suffering from cardiac arrest. In one study, the overall survival rate of cardiac arrest to hospital *Correspondence to: Dr Wen-Han Chang, Emergency Department, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 92, Section 2, Chung-Shan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan. E-mail: [email protected] Accepted: February 28, 2009 FACTORS ANALYSIS OF CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION OUTCOMES IN THE ELDERLY IN TAIWAN