Outcomes of patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest in the setting of drug overdose.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the attributes and clinical outcomes of patients with cardiac arrest in the setting of drug overdose (OD) to patients with cardiac arrest from non-drug related etiologies.

METHODS: We utilized a US inpatient cardiac arrest registry used to study targeted temperature management (TTM) to identify patients with cardiac arrest in the setting of drug overdose between 2005 and 2013. Data regarding the cardiac arrest, resuscitation interventions, use of post-arrest TTM, urine drug screen, survival, and neurologic outcome were examined. These results were compared to patients suffering cardiac arrest from other causes during the same time period using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for continuous variables and chi-square tests on categorical variables.

RESULTS: Approximately 2.5% (64/2584) of cardiac arrests occurred in the setting of drug overdose. Patients in the OD cohort were younger, more likely to be male, and more likely to have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that was unwitnessed with no bystander CPR and from a non-shockable rhythm. However, the patients in the OD cohort had similar rates of survival and good neurologic outcomes (Cerebral Performance Category 1-2) compared to non-OD patients. A fraction of initially resuscitated patients in each group (8% in OD cohort vs. 15% in non-OD cohort, p=ns) did not receive post-arrest TTM due to prompt awakening following resuscitation.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest in the setting of drug OD have neurologic and survival outcomes comparable to non-OD patients despite lower rates of bystander CPR, shockable rhythms, and witnessed arrest.