Sado J, et al. - Researchers undertook this study to determine the incidence, patient characteristics, and outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurring while in a motor vehicle in Osaka City, Japan (with a population of 2.6 million), from 2009 to 2015. Findings revealed that OHCAs occurring while in a motor vehicle represent a small subset of the overall OHCA burden, however, a relatively large number of cardiac arrests with a medical origin occurred among drivers.

Methods

• Researchers obtained the OHCA data from the population-based Utstein-style registry in Osaka City.
• They included patients who had OHCA occurring while in a motor vehicle.
• One-month survival with favorable neurological outcome after OHCA was the primary end-point.

Results

• They identified 18,458 OHCAs during the study period; of these, 264 (1.4%) occurred while on or in a motor vehicle (drivers, n=179; non-drivers, n=85).
• While in a motor vehicle, the overall incidence rate of OHCAs occurring was 14.0 per million population per year (drivers, 9.5; non-drivers, 4.5).
• Seventy-eight (43.6%) and 101 (56.4%) cases of OHCAs among the drivers were due to medical origin and traffic injuries, respectively.
• Among drivers, nearly half of OHCAs with a medical origin presumably occurred while driving (46.2%, 36/78).
• After OHCA, the overall proportion of 1-month survival with favorable neurological outcome was 6.4% (17/264).
• The proportion of OHCAs with a medical origin and due to traffic injuries among the drivers were 11.5% (9/78) and 2.0% (2/101) (P=0.008), respectively.