Background: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of in-hospital cardiac
arrest and survival during 10 years of observation.
Methods: Study group: patients hospitalized in the Internal Medicine Unit (including Intensive
Care) in the years 1995-1997 with cardiac arrest during hospitalization. The probable
reasons for the cardiac arrest were defined (cardiac or non-cardiac) as well as the mechanism
(VF/VT, other). The number of deaths during the first 24 hours from the episode, during the
whole stay in the hospital and after one, five and ten-years was analyzed.
Results: During the period examined, 152 cardiac arrests took place. The resuscitation was
successful in 83 cases. In that group, 66% patients had cardiac cause of cardiac arrest, 50.6%
in the mechanism of VF. Ninety percent of the patients died during their stay in the hospital
(38.5% during the first 24 hours after the episode), 10% of the patients left the hospital alive.
Only 2 of them (2.4%) survived the next 5 years. Nobody survived 10 years.
Conclusions: Cardiac arrest within the internal ward was characterized by high in-hospital
mortality risk and unsuccessful late prognosis. Non-cardiac cause of cardiac arrest, relatively
common in cases of in-hospital cardiac arrest, is connected with better survival after the first
24 hours; however, it does not improve the general survival to hospital discharge