Intensive care unit evaluations prior to cardiac arrest improved survival rates by 15 percent among Black patients, according to preliminary research that will be presented at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2022 Nov. 5-6.
Researchers analyzed data for more than 28,000 adults who experienced cardiac arrest in the hospital outside of the ICU between 2000 and 2021. All the participants had been identified to be at risk of cardiac arrest. Researchers found no difference in frequency of ICU team evaluations between Black and white patients, but found evaluations had the greatest impact on Black patients.
"ICU evaluation for Black people at risk for cardiac arrest is important because it is already known that Black people have overall lower cardiac arrest survival rates when compared to white people. If there is little difference in the rates at which these ICU evaluations are being done, then it's critical to further explore what else might drive these disparities in survival," lead study author Cody Gathers, MD, a critical care fellow in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said in the release.