Resume
Data acquisition for the Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry is organized by the five regional EMS organizations in Denmark. The registry is a nationwide registry and contains data from June 2001 to 2014. The results stated below are based on analyses of 45,269 first-time out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Denmark during the study period from June 2001 to 2014.
- Each year approximately 3,500-4,000 people suffer a sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Denmark.
- The rate of bystander CPR performed before the arrival of EMS personnel has more than tripled, during the 14-year study period, from 19.4 % in 2001 to 65.8 % in 2014. Thus, in 66 % of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases bystanders performed CPR.
- Bystander defibrillation before arrival of EMS personnel has increased from 1.4 % in 2001 to 3.6 % in 2014.
- Survival has more than tripled during the study period, with an increase in 30-day survival from 3.9 % in 2001 to 12.7 % in 2014 for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
- If bystanders perform CPR in the event of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, approximately 1 out of 8 cardiac arrest victims survive. For comparison, only 1 out of 30 cardiac arrest victims survive if bystanders did not perform CPR.
- The total number of people surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has more than tripled from 146 people in 2002 to 515 people in 2014.
- Most of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in residential locations (72.2 %) compared with out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in public locations (27.8 %).
- The number of patients having a shockable rhythm at the arrival of EMS personnel is 18.7 %. For out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients having a shockable rhythm survival has increased from 12.5 % in 2001 to 45.9% in 2014.
- A study based on the Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry has reported that 76 % of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors who worked prior to the cardiac arrest incident returned to their previous work.
