Outcomes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the emergency department

Objective: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique useful in the prevention of death or delaying it in a person with cardiac arrest. In this regard, demographic information about patients who need CPR is vital. Methods: In this cross-sectional study patients with cardiopulmonary arrest or arrhythmias admitted to Imam Reza and Sina educational hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences from 22 December 2013 to 21 December 2014 entered the study. Demographic information such as age, sex, cardiopulmonary resuscitation time, the place of cardiopulmonary arrest (outside or inside the hospital), the duration of resuscitation process, success or failure of the resuscitation process and the mechanism of cardiopulmonary arrest were obtained. Results: From a total of 354 cases of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 281 cases (79%) were unsuccessful and 73 cases (21%) were successful. The average age of patients was 59 ± 22 years. The average time of the resuscitation process was 31 ± 12 minutes. There was a significant difference between the mean of age and resuscitation time in patients who had experienced successful or unsuccessful resuscitation (P = 0.0001). There was a significant relationship between sex and the success rate of resuscitation (P = 0.0001). In addition, a significant relationship between the success of the resuscitation operation and the ward of resuscitation was observed (P = 0.0001). Conclusion: The most common mechanism leading to cardiopulmonary arrest among patients was asystole. In this regard, no significant difference was observed between successful and unsuccessful resuscitation processes. It was also observed that the success of resuscitation from 8 am to 4 pm was more than any other time period.