title: Ten-year follow-up after in-hospital adult cardiac arrest.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of in-hospital cardiac arrest and survival during 10 years of observation.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Gerontology, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Kraków, Poland. franczuk@mp.pl
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Franczuk
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rewiuk
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gasowski
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Faryan
authors.forename: Haghighi Massod
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Vadiee
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grodzicki
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000150:complications; D013997:Time Factors