Out-of-hospital adult cardiac arrests in a university hospital in central Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To report the characteristics of adult out-of-hospital arrest patients and their outcomes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This is a prospective descriptive study of out-of-hospital adult arrests incident transported to King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between July 2012 and September 2013. RESULTS: A total of 96 adult patients were enrolled in this study. Males represented 62.5% of the participants. The mean age of the study population was 58.9 years, and specifically 30.8 years for traumatic arrests, and 62.9 for non-traumatic. An over-all mortality rate of 95.8% was documented, as well as a low rate of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation being performed, and a family member transported most patients to the hospital. CONCLUSION: A low survival rate for non-traumatic out-of-hospital adult arrest patients and a 100% mortality rate in traumatic arrests were discovered.