title: Incidence of in-hospital cardiac arrest in Poland.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In-hospital cardiac arrest with its poor prognosis is a challenging problem in hospitals. The aim of this study was to evaluate in Polish hospitals the frequency of in-hospital cardiac arrests with the subsequent mortality, with special emphasis on the type of unit at which the event occurred, and the patient's demographic data, such as age and sex.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was a retrospective analysis of data for 2012 registered in the Polish General Hospital Morbidity Study. This research covered all Polish hospitals, excluding only government and psychiatric hospitals. The study inclusion criterion was the incidence of cardiac arrest in any hospital ward, recorded by the respective ICD-10 diagnosis code.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 7,775,553 patients hospitalized, the diagnosis of cardiac arrest was reported in a total of 22,602 patients, which included 22,317 adults (98.7% of all patients) and 285 children (1.3%). Overall mortality after cardiac arrest among adults was 74.2%, and in children 46.7%. In both absolute numbers and as percentages of all documented cases, cardiac arrests occurred most often at the departments of intensive care, internal medicine, cardiology and emergency medicine. The accompanying mortality was lower than average at the departments of intensive care, cardiology, cardiology high dependency unit and emergency medicine. The median age of patients with cardiac arrest who died in the hospital was higher than the median age of those who survived (72 vs. 64; P < 0.05). Although cardiac arrests were reported more often among men than women (58.2% vs. 41.8%; P < 0.001), the hospital mortality was higher among women (79.2% vs. 71.6%; P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The frequency of in-hospital cardiac arrests in Polish hospitals and the subsequent mortality is not substantially different from that observed in other countries. However, our study, based on ICD-10 diagnosis codes, gives only limited information about the patients and circumstances of this event. An in-depth analysis of the causes, prognoses, and outcome of in-hospital cardiac arrests could be facilitated by the creation of a national registry.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adamski
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nowakowski
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goryński
authors.forename: Dariusz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Onichimowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences/Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Uppsala University, Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. wojciech.weigl@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weigl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D006748:Hospital Departments / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: CPR; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; in-hospital cardiac arrest; mortality rate