In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Common, Survival Poor, in COVID-19

Medscape reported on two studies of in-hospital cardiac arrest in Covid patients.

In a report from William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, 60 of 1309 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (4.6%) had an in-hospital cardiac arrest. Of these, 54 had documented cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). None survived to discharge.

In a multicenter cohort study published online September 30 in theBMJ, 701 of 5019 (14.0%) critically ill Covid patients had an in-hospital cardiac arrest. Of those, 400 received CPR and 48 patients (12%) survived to discharge, although 20 of these patients had moderate to severe neurologic dysfunction.

….it’s important to initiate discussion on goals of care with patients and family early on

…..we need to be aware of the importance of intervening in COVID-19 early to prevent patients from becoming that sick, because the best way to treat cardiac arrest is to prevent it. Now that we have a lot of new therapies and have more experience with treating COVID, we hope that we may not have to deal with such a large number of very sick patients. – Salim S. Hayek, MD, University of Michigan

View the Medscape article