Abstract
Management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a major task of the accident and emergency department. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of prehospital resuscitation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Hong Kong and identify areas for improvement. It was a prospective descriptive study of adults with non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who were admitted to the Accident and Emergency Department of Queen Mary Hospital by the ambulance service from March 15, 1999 to October 15, 1999. Patient characteristics and the response times of the ambulance service were recorded according to the Utstein style. One hundred and thirty patients were included. The overall immediate survival rate was 14.6% and the overall survival to discharge rate was 1.54%. The outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is poor. Every link in the chain of survival has to be improved.