J Emerg Med
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Sudden cardiac arrest is the most common cause of death worldwide, and prognostication after survival remains challenging. Decisions regarding prognosis can be fraught with error in the immediate postarrest period, with guidelines recommending the use of various tests, including blood gas pH, to determine which interventions to perform. Despite these recommendations, the prognostic utility of blood gas pH remains unclear. ⋯ Both presence and degree of acidemia on initial blood gas after ROSC was associated with a decreased likelihood of survival to hospital discharge. The optimal cutoff for prediction in this cohort of patients was 7.04. Using a higher pH cutoff would result in fewer patients receiving intervention that would otherwise have survived.