Resuscitation
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Multicenter Study
Epidemiology and survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in north-east Italy: The F.A.C.S. study. Friuli Venezia Giulia Cardiac Arrest Cooperative Study.
The results of the first epidemiological, prospective, multicentric study on cardiac arrest in a geographical Italian region are reported. On 708 consecutive cardiac arrests, 438 underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Of these, 344 were identified of cardiac aetiology. ⋯ Overall, the highest probability of survival was achieved when CPR interventions were started within the first minutes after collapse. Basic Life Support (BLS) manoeuvres began after 9 min of untreated cardiac arrest were still followed by a ROSC, but none of these patients survived. The incidence of prehospital cardiac arrest in our population was estimated to be in proportion of 0.95/1000 per year with a survival rate of 6.7%.