BACKGROUND: We aimed to elucidate the post-hospitalization outcomes in patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia and cardiac catheterization after sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). METHODS: A retrospective, tertiary-center study consisted of 173 consecutive patients who met inclusion criteria between January 2008 and March 2015. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were defined as death, myocardial infarction, revascularization, and heart failure or arrhythmia- related hospitalization. RESULTS: Ninety-nine of 173 patients (57.2%) survived to discharge. Univariate analysis showed that shockable rhythm and initial lactate level were independent predictors of survival to discharge (p-value \u3c0.001). The patients who survived were followed for 43.9±25 months after discharge; 63.6% of patients were discharged home and 36.4% of patients were to nursing homes or to long-term acute care facilities. MACE is presented in Figure 1. During the follow-up period, 53.3% of patients who survived remained free from MACE. CONCLUSIONS: In our real-world study population, 57.2% of patients were alive to discharge after undergoing catheterization and hypothermia for SCA. About half the patients who survived to discharge had MACE in an average follow-up of 3.7 years. These findings highlight the importance of close clinical follow-up for patients who survive SCA. Open full size imag
