Survival Rate of Acute Cardiac Arrest Patients at 7.8%... Improved from Previous Year

Annual Improvement in Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Rates

A survey revealed that the survival rate of acute cardiac arrest patients transported by the 119 emergency medical service last year was 7.8%. This marks an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous year. It was also confirmed that the rate of bystanders performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on acute cardiac arrest patients has increased more than fourfold over the past decade.

On the 13th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and the National Fire Agency announced the results of a survey on approximately 30,000 acute cardiac arrest patients transported by emergency medical services in 2022 at the 12th (2023) Acute Cardiac Arrest Survey Symposium.

Among the 35,018 acute cardiac arrest patients transported by the 119 emergency medical service last year, 63.9% (22,380 patients) were male, outnumbering females (36.1%, 12,632 patients). Notably, the incidence increased with age, with those aged 70 and above accounting for 53.9% of all cases. Acute cardiac arrest refers to a sudden severe decline or cessation of heart activity. The majority of acute cardiac arrest cases, 78.3%, were caused by diseases such as myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, and stroke. Incidents due to non-disease causes, such as falls and traffic accidents, accounted for 20.9%. The highest occurrence was at home, representing 44.7% of cases.

Among the patients transported by the 119 emergency medical service, 34,848 completed hospital visits and medical record investigations. Of these, 2,701 survived. The survival rate was 7.8%, an improvement of 0.5 percentage points from the previous year (7.3%). Furthermore, 1,774 patients recovered brain function to a level sufficient for daily life, resulting in a brain function recovery rate of 5.1%, which also rose by 0.7 percentage points from the previous year (4.4%).

The rate of bystanders performing CPR on acute cardiac arrest patients is on the rise. Last year, it was 29.3%, up 0.5 percentage points from the previous year (28.8%). In 2012, it was only 6.9%, meaning the rate of bystander CPR has increased more than fourfold in ten years. This is attributed to effective government education and promotion of CPR methods. To expand bystander CPR, the KDCA included CPR guidelines for infectious situations such as COVID-19 when revising the Korean CPR Guidelines in 2020. During January of last year, a period when hands-on standard training courses were limited, non-face-to-face CPR educational materials were developed and distributed. The survival rate when bystander CPR was performed was 12.2%, which is twice as high as the 5.9% survival rate when it was not performed.

Ji Young-mi, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, stated, “Since the survival rate is more than twice as high when bystander CPR is performed compared to when it is not, it is extremely important to immediately perform CPR upon witnessing an acute cardiac arrest patient.” She added, “We will put more effort into developing and distributing educational materials so that anyone can easily learn and master CPR.”

Nam Hwa-young, Commissioner of the National Fire Agency, said, “We ask that people follow the instructions of the 119 situation room (Emergency Medical Situation Management Center) promptly when reporting to ensure that cardiac arrest patients receive bystander CPR quickly.” He added, “We will strive to guide bystanders to perform CPR swiftly and effectively through various methods, including video calls with the caller.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.