Are There Age-Related Differences in the In-Hospital Treatment of Victims from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest?

Objective: Hardly anything is known about reasons for age-related differences in surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with worse surviving rates in elderly. Methods: 204 victims from OHCA who were admitted in our hospital between January 1st 2008 and December 31st 2013 were identified. According to their mean age (69.1 ± 14.2 years) we classified those patients (pts) who were younger than mean age minus standard deviation (SD) as young, and those victims from OHCA who were older than mean age plus SD as old. Results: Young victims from OHCA (n = 32 pts) presented more often with an initial shockable rhythm than the elderly (n = 38 pts) (50.0% vs. 21.1%; p = 0.014), received more often coronary angiography (71.9% vs. 18.4%; p < 0.001), more often percutaneous coronary intervention (46.9% vs. 13.2%; p = 0.003), more often mild therapeutic hypothermia (78.1% vs. 15.8%; p < 0.001) and could be more often discharged alive (65.6% vs. 21.1%; p < 0.001). Conclusion: At hospital admission, physiological data did not differ between young and old victims from OHCA. Less use of coronary angiography and mild therapeutic hypothermia in elderly victims from OHCA might suggest that the observed age-related differences in survival following OHCA might be caused by age-related differences in the in-hospital treatment.