Observational studyBMJ open2021
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the city of Cape Town, South Africa: a retrospective, descriptive analysis of prehospital patient records.
Observational study in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of school-based CPR training among adolescents to enhance knowledge and skills in CPR: A systematic review.Curationis · 2022Pooled it
- Leveraging primary healthcare institutions for the deployment of automated external defibrillators: a geospatial optimization analysis in Deyang, China.Resuscitation plus · 2026Article
- Epidemiology and outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Zhejiang, China based on Electronic Medical Record Surveillance.Resuscitation plus · 2025Article
- Views and perceptions of advanced life support practitioners on initiating, withholding and terminating resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the Emergency Medical Services of South Africa.Resuscitation plus · 2024Article
- Patient Preferences for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Care in South Africa: A Discrete Choice Experiment.Value in health regional issues · 2024Article
- The development history, current state, challenges, and future directions of the BASIC-OHCA registry in China: A narrative review.Resuscitation plus · 2024Review
- A resuscitation systems analysis for South Africa: A narrative review.Resuscitation plus · 2024Review
- Factors Influencing Company Bus Drivers' Awareness and Attitudes towards Basic Life Support in Kigali.Rwanda journal of medicine and health sciences · 2024Article
- The barriers and facilitators to initiation of telephone-assisted bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation for patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a private emergency dispatch centre in South Africa.Resuscitation plus · 2024Article
- The understandability and quality of telephone-guided bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the Western Cape province of South Africa: A manikin-based study.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2023Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions Regarding CPR Among Non-medical Staff at a Medical School in South Africa.Cureus · 2023Article
- A retrospective descriptive analysis of non-physician-performed prehospital endotracheal intubation practices and performance in South Africa.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the city of Cape Town metropole of the Western Cape province of South Africa: a spatio-temporal analysis.Cardiovascular journal of AfricaArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWhile prospective epidemiological data for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) exists in many high-income settings, there is a dearth of such data for the African continent. The aim of this study was to describe OHCA in the Cape Town metropole, South Africa.
designObservational study with a retrospective descriptive design.
settingCape Town metropole, Western Cape province, South Africa.
participantsAll patients with OHCA for the period 1 January 2018-31 December 2018 were extracted from public and private emergency medical services (EMS) and described. OUTCOME MEASURES: Description of patients with OHCA in terms of demographics, treatment and short-term outcome.
resultsA total of 929 patients with OHCA received an EMS response in the Cape Town metropole, corresponding to an annual prevalence of 23.2 per 100 000 persons. Most patients were adult (n=885; 96.5%) and male (n=526; 56.6%) with a median (IQR) age of 63 (26) years. The majority of cardiac arrests occurred in private residences (n=740; 79.7%) and presented with asystole (n=322; 34.6%). EMS resuscitation was only attempted in 7.4% (n=69) of cases and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) occurred in 1.3% (n=13) of cases. Almost all patients (n=909; 97.8%) were declared dead on the scene.
conclusionTo our knowledge, this was the largest study investigating OHCA ever undertaken in Africa. We found that while the incidence of OHCA in Cape Town was similar to the literature, resuscitation is attempted in very few patients and ROSC-rates are negligible. This may be as a consequence of protracted response times, poor patient prognosis or an underdeveloped and under-resourced Chain of Survival in low- to middle-income countries, like South Africa. The development of contextual guidelines given resources and disease burden is essential.
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