Increases in survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a five year study.

OBJECTIVE: This study reports improvements in survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in London over a five year period from 2007 to 2012 and explores the potential reasons for the very striking increases observed.

METHODS: Data from the London Ambulance Service's cardiac arrest registry from 2007 to 2012 were analysed retrospectively for all patients who met the Utstein comparator group criteria (an arrest of a presumed cardiac cause that was bystander witnessed with an initial rhythm of VF/VT).

RESULTS: We observed an increase in survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest during the five year period, with incremental improvements each year from 12% to 32% for the Utstein comparator group of patients.

CONCLUSION: We suggest that a range of important changes made to pre-hospital cardiac care in London over the last five years have contributed to the observed increase in survival over the study period. In addition we advocate a range of further initiatives to continue improving survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.