Abstract 12233: Comparing EMS Witnessed Cardiac Arrest in Germany and Norway

Abstract

Introduction: Health registries are a unique source of information about current practice and can describe the burden of disease in a population. However, comparing data from different countries/states we are not always sure if we are comparing patients from similar populations. Method: The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the information in the German Resuscitation Registry (GRR) and the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest Registry (NorCAR) through a cross-sectional comparative-study of these two population-based public registries. We included all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients witnessed by ambulance personnel, between 1 st January 2015 and 31 st December 2019. Proportions were assessed with Chi-square tests. Results: A total of 3,688 cases from Germany and 2,016 cases from Norway were included in the analysis, resulting in an incidence of 8.6 ambulance witnessed cardiac arrests per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany and 7.8 in Norway. A higher proportion of patients had resuscitation terminated on scene in Norway, 43% vs 30% (p<0.01), while the proportion of patients arriving to hospital with spontaneous circulation was higher in Germany, 49% vs 40% (p<0.01). However, 24-hour survival and the overall survival was higher in Norway, with 24-hour survival of 36% vs 31% (p<0.01), and the overall survival of 28% vs 19% (p<0.01). Conclusion: The incidence of cardiac arrests observed by ambulance personnel was higher in Germany, but survival was higher in Norway. We speculate that the major difference between countries is in the post-resuscitation care after admission to hospital.