Does obesity influence the outcome of the patients following cardiac arrest?

Abstract

Introduction: In Australia, an estimated 15,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year, while one to six hospital admissions suffer in-hospital cardiac arrest. In Australia, 6% to 13% of cardiac arrest victims survive more than 1 year. Obesity is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular and peripheral vascular diseases. Studies examining obese patients with cardiac arrest provide conflicting results. Moreover, there is lack of research on this topic from Australia. Objectives: To study the association between obesity and outcome in patients following cardiac arrest. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study at a tertiary ICU. Data was collected from medical records between 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2018 for all adult ICU patients who were admitted following cardiac arrest. Data collected included demographics and anthropometrics, location of cardiac arrest, initial rhythm duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital length of stay. The primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge. Secondary outcomes were duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU and hospital length of stay. Results: One hundred and twenty-six patients were admitted to the ICU following cardiac arrest during the study period.Fourteen patients were excluded because of missing BMI data; 76 patients were non-obese (BMI < 30) and 36 patients were obese (BMI > 30). There was no difference in survival to hospital discharge between obese and non-obese (52.8% vs.59.2%, p=0.52, OR=0.77 (95% CI 0.35-1.71). Moreover, there was no difference between obese and non-obese in ICU length of stay (h : 81.50 vs.76, p=0.42), hospital length of stay (days: 9 vs.10, p=0.63) and duration of mechanical ventilation (h : 55 vs.43, p=0.30).There was a trend towards better survival in non-obese patients with VF(OR 2.55,95% CI 0.72-8.96,p=0.19). Conclusion: For patients admitted to the ICU following cardiac arrest, obesity does not influence survival, length of stay or duration of mechanical ventilation.