Cardiac arrest during anesthesia in a teaching hospital. A 4 years survey.

Abstract

METHODS: During the past 4 years, 48 cases of cardiac arrest occurred during anesthesia among a total of 104,600 cases of anesthesia at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. RESULTS: The incidence of cardiac arrest was thus about 0.046% (48/104,600), with the causative factors being anesthetic related in 21% (10/48) of cases, surgical factors in 19% (9/48) of cases and patient's pathological factors in 60% (29/48) of cases. Of these 48 patients, 34 died and 14 survived after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Anesthesia contributed to death in 3 cases of a total of 104,600 cases of anesthesia giving an approximate incidence of 3/100,000. Two of these 3 cases were avoidable.