Attempted CPR in nursing homes - life-saving at the end of life?

Abstract

Aim: We studied the course and success rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) attempted on nursing home residents by a physician-staffed pre-hospital advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) team. Methods: Ambulance records of nursing home residents from Goettingen/Germany who had a cardiac arrest were examined retrospectively. Results: During a seven-year period (1992-1998) the ACLS team was called to 71 residents (mean age 81.8 years) who sustained cardiac arrest. In 25 patients no CPR was attempted: 20 were pronounced dead by the arriving emergency physician, though only in 7 patients obvious clinical signs of death were present. Five patients suffered from a continuous deterioration of their health status and the ACLS team arrived after the process of dying had already started. No CPR attempt was initiated. The ACLS team performed CPR on 46 nursing home residents. In 33 patients (72% of CPR attempts) no return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) was achieved. in three patients (6%) palpable pulse returned only transiently. Ten patients (22%) who showed ROSC were transported to the hospital. Six patients died within 24 hours after having been admitted to the hospital, two patients within the next 8 days. Two patients survived to hospital discharge. The first was a 79-year old woman who returned to the nursing home after three weeks and survived severely mentally disabled another five days. The second was an 83-year-old man who was hospitalised for 20 days, returned in a persistent vegetative state to the nursing home and died 10 months later. A comparison of the arrest characteristics demonstrated that in patients with successful CPR there was a higher incidence of a witnessed collapse, bystander CPR, ventricular fibrillation and cardiac aetiology of arrest. Conclusion: In a high rate (35%) the ACLS team with the emergency physician at the scene withheld CPR efforts in nursing home residents. Even if CPR was initiated, the benefits were very limited with only two patients (4,3%) surviving severely disabled to hospital discharge.