Demographics and Clinical Features of Postresuscitation Comorbidities in Long-Term Survivors of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A National Follow-Up Study

Abstract

The outcome of patients suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is very poor, and postresuscitation comorbidities increase long-term mortality. This study aims to analyze new-onset postresuscitation comorbidities in patients who survived from OHCA for over one year. The Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) Database was used in this study. Study and comparison groups were created to analyze the risk of suffering from new-onset postresuscitation comorbidities from 2011 to 2012 (until December 31, 2013). The study group included 1,346 long-term OHCA survivors; the comparison group consisted of 4,038 matched non-OHCA patients. Demographics, patient characteristics, and risk of suffering comorbidities (using Cox proportional hazards models) were analyzed. We found that urinary tract infections ( n = 225, 16.72%), pneumonia ( n = 206, 15.30%), septicemia ( n = 184, 13.67%), heart failure ( n = 111, 8.25%) gastrointestinal hemorrhage ( n = 108, 8.02%), epilepsy or recurrent seizures ( n = 98, 7.28%), and chronic kidney disease ( n = 62, 4.61%) were the most common comorbidities. Furthermore, OHCA survivors were at much higher risk (than comparison patients) of experiencing epilepsy or recurrent seizures (HR = 20.83; 95% CI: 12.24–35.43), septicemia (HR = 8.98; 95% CI: 6.84–11.79), pneumonia (HR = 5.82; 95% CI: 4.66–7.26), and heart failure (HR = 4.88; 95% CI: 3.65–6.53). Most importantly, most comorbidities occurred within the first half year after OHCA.