Impact of Hypothermia and Immediate Coronary Angiography/pci on Outcome of Comatose Survivors of Out-of-hospital Ventricular Fibrillation

We compared hospital outcome of consecutive comatose survivors of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation admitted to our hospital after reestablishment of spontaneous circulation between 1995 and 1997 when no hypothermia/immediate coronary angiography/PCI were used (n=45) to period from 2004 to 2012 when these methods became standard of care (n=400). In 2004, when hypothermia was used in 83% and immediate coronary angiography/PCI in 64%, survival to hospital discharge improved from 33% to 70% (p<0.001).