Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has increased during the last decade in Denmark. We aimed to study the impact of age on changes in survival and whether it was possible to identify patients with minimal chance of 30-day survival.
Using data from the nationwide Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry (2001-2011), we identified 21?480 patients =18 years old with a presumed cardiac-caused out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for which resuscitation was attempted. Patients were divided into 3 preselected age-groups: working-age patients 18 to 65 years of age (33.7%), early senior patients 66 to 80 years of age (41.5%), and late senior patients >80 years of age (24.8%). Characteristics in working-age patients, early senior patients, and late senior patients were as follows: witnessed arrest in 53.8%, 51.1%, and 52.1%; bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation in 44.7%, 30.3%, and 23.4%; and prehospital shock from a defibrillator in 54.7%, 45.0%, and 33.8% (all P