Outcome of Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Are There Gender Differences?

Abstract Background Despite advance in resuscitation science, out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has an average survival rate of only 10 %. Ventricular fibrillation (FV) is amenable to defibrillation, but deteriorates to non shockable rhythms over time. It’Known that immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation and eraly defibrillation increase survival after OHCA. It remains unclear whether there is an association between gender and survival. It seems that women OHCA patients are older, are less likely to have a witness arrest and they had fewer arrest in pubblic location than men . However these data are controversial. Methods We considered consecutively 6995 OHCA survivors resuscitated from emergency medical System (EMS) or bystander (BS) In Piacenza between june 1999 to decembre 2022 and we evaluated the outcome, considering sex and gender disparities Results Out of 6995 suffered from OHCA, 2983 (43%) were females with average age 81 ±13 years and 4012 (57%) males with average age of 73 ±15 years (p0,00001).We observed with advanced age an incresead rate of woman that suffered from OHCA in comparison to man ( 44 years 177 m vs 63 w; 45–60 y 594 m vs 152 w, 61–75 y 1261m vs 530w; 75 y 1980 m vs 2239 w).The survival of our population was 270 patients At EMS arrival 6150 patients (88%), 2779 (45%) female and 3371 (55%) male presented a non schockable rhythms (NSR):asystole or pulseless electrical activity (PEA) whilst 845 patients(12%), 170(75%) males and 56 (25%) females, presented FV .In the group with FV as initial rhythm, the survival was 26% (56/206 f 27% vs 107/647 m 26% p= 0,06). Also in this group women were slightly older (73 years f vs 67 m, p0,00001). In all population survival decreased in females vs males (66/2984 w 2% vs 200/4012 5%f vp0,00001).Females appeared with more non schockable rhythms (93 % f vs 84 % m, p 0,00001)Women suffered from OHCA were found more frequently at home (2785 w 93% vs 3379 84%m p 0,0001).Furthermore 97% males and 98% female were treated by EMS and 3 % males and 1,3% females by BS(survival males 3,6% EMS vs 51% BS and females 2 EMS%vs 26%BS). Conclusions In our OHCA population, the survival was 4% with better results in man Female were older and they had less survival, because initial rhythm registered were non shockable rhythms. They were found at home,with a delay in the first aid. This can be due to a gender disparities with advanced age.