Should the elderly be resuscitated from out-of-hospital VT/VF arrest

P. Denes*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Ramsey Emergency Medical Services Program serves the city of St. Paul and surrounding suburban areas, a population of approximately 350,000. During the years 1987 and 1988 a total of 197 patients with VT/VF arrest were attended. We examined the effect of age on outcome by comparing the circumstances of resuscitation attempts and survival between patients with age < 70 and ≥ 70 years old. The mean age for the two groups was 55.8 ± 12 and 77.7 ± 5 years respectively. The < 70 (116 pts) and ≥ 70 year old (82 pts) did not differ in the average time from arrest to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (5.2 ± 5 vs 4.9 ± 4 minutes); of the percent of cases with < 3 min response time (42% vs 43%); or the initial responders (public 24% vs 20%, basic life support 33% vs 40% and advanced life support 43% vs 40%). Of the patients < 70 years old 29.5% were admitted to hospital and 10.5% were discharged alive. Of pts ≥ 70 years old 31.8% were admitted to hospital and 13.5% were discharged alive.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)383-388
Number of pages6
JournalNew Trends in Arrhythmias
Volume8
Issue number1-2
StatePublished - Jan 1 1992

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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