The incidence and characteristics of 3-month mortality after intraoperative cardiac arrest in adults

Background: There is little information about clinical outcomes after intraoperative cardiac arrest (IOCA). We determined the incidence and characteristics of 3-month mortality after IOCA. Methods: The electronic medical records of 238,648 adult surgical patients from January 2005 to December 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Characteristics of IOCA were documented using the Utstein reporting template. Results: IOCA occurred in 50 patients (21/100,000 surgeries). Nineteen patients died in the operating room, and further 12 patients died within 3 months post-arrest (total mortality: 62%). Three survivors at 3 months post-arrest had unfavourable neurological outcome. Finally, 34 patients showed unfavourable clinical outcomes at 3 months post-arrest. The incidences of non-cardiac surgery, emergency, pre-operative intubation state, non-shockable initial cardiac rhythm, hypovolaemic shock, pre-operative complications-induced cardiac arrest, non-anaesthetic cause of cardiac arrest, intra- and post-arrest transfusion, and continuous infusion of inotrope or vasopressor in intensive care unit (ICU) were significantly higher in non-survivors at 3 months post-arrest. Total epinephrine dose administrated during arrest was higher, and the duration of cardiac compressions was longer in non-survivors at 3 months post-arrest. Conclusions: In this study, the incidence of IOCA was 21/100,000 surgeries and the 3-month mortality rate after IOCA was 62%. Several factors including surgical emergency, non-shockable initial cardiac rhythm, pre-operative complications, surgical complications, long duration of cardiac compressions, high total epinephrine dose, transfusion, and continuous infusion of inotropes or vasopressors in ICU seemed to be risk factors for 3-month mortality after IOCA. These risk factors should be considered in the light of relatively small sample size of this study.