• Jürgen Graf, Cecile Mühlhoff, Gordon S Doig, Sebastian Reinartz, Kirsten Bode, Robert Dujardin, Karl-Christian Koch, Elke Roeb, and Uwe Janssens.
• Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Philipps-University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35043 Marburg, Germany. jgraf@gmx.de
• Crit Care. 2008 Jan 1;12(4):R92.

IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to investigate the costs and health status outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) admission in patients who present after sudden cardiac arrest with in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.MethodsFive-year survival, health-related quality of life (Medical Outcome Survey Short Form-36 questionnaire, SF-36), ICU costs, hospital costs and post-hospital health care costs per survivor, costs per life year gained, and costs per quality-adjusted life year gained of patients admitted to a single ICU were assessed.ResultsOne hundred ten of 354 patients (31%) were alive 5 years after hospital discharge. The mean health status index of 5-year survivors was 0.77 (95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.85). Women rated their health-related quality of life significantly better than men did (0.87 versus 0.74; P < 0.05). Costs per hospital discharge survivor were 49,952 euro. Including the costs of post-hospital discharge health care incurred during their remaining life span, the total costs per life year gained were 10,107 euro. Considering 5-year survivors only, the costs per life year gained were calculated as 9,816 euro or 14,487 euro per quality-adjusted life year gained. Including seven patients with severe neurological sequelae, costs per life year gained in 5-year survivors increased by 18% to 11,566 euro.ConclusionPatients who leave the hospital following cardiac arrest without severe neurological disabilities may expect a reasonable quality of life compared with age- and gender-matched controls. Quality-adjusted costs for this patient group appear to be within ranges considered reasonable for other groups of patients.

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