Cardiac arrest & resuscitation
Temporal trends in incidence, characteristics and survival outcomes for asystolic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Main finding · Survival to hospital discharge (EMS-treated)Result — go to the resultAdjusted odds ratio 0.42 95% CI 0.23–0.75Authors' conclusion
Survival and long-term outcomes for initial asystolic OHCA remain persistently poor despite increased bystander CPR and system-level improvements.
Study context
- Population
- Adults aged ≥16 years with OHCA and initial asystolic rhythm, Victoria, Australia, 2003–2022; Emergency medical services (EMS)-witnessed arrests excluded19,517 EMS-treated
- Participants
- 75,262 adults
- Exposure
- Temporal trends 2003-2022
- Outcome
- Temporal trends in incidence, characteristics and outcomes (survival) of asystolic OHCA
Methodological detailspopulation-based registry, temporal trends, multivariable logistic regression
- Population-based registry
- Temporal trends
- Multivariable logistic regression
Main finding
Survival to hospital discharge (EMS-treated)
Adjusted odds ratio
0.42
95% CI 0.23–0.75
P = 0.004
2018-22 vs 2003-07
aOR 0.42 (95% CI 0.23–0.75); P = 0.004
As reported in the abstract
- Survival to hospital discharge, 2003 to 2022
- 1.2% to 0.3% (p for trend < 0.001)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Age-standardised incidence of EMS-attended cases
- Cases per 100,000 population, 2003 vs 2022
- 84.1 vs 77.8 (p for trend = 0.201)
Prehospital ROSC
- Decreased over study period
- 17.8% to 15.4% (p for trend < 0.001)
Bystander CPR
- Increased over study period
- 37.1-71.1% (p for trend < 0.001)
Bystander-witnessed arrests
- Declined over study period
- 42.8-35.2% (p for trend < 0.001)
Arrests in aged care facilities, traumatic aetiology, rural regions (EMS-treated)
- All increased over study period
- P for trend < 0.05
Favourable functional outcome (GOS-E ≥5) among survivors with telephone follow-up · 12 months
- Rate of favourable functional outcome
- 54.8%
- n = 42 of 55 eligible
Original publication
Temporal trends in incidence, characteristics and survival outcomes for asystolic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Published 25 March 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →