Prof. Alessandro Sionis
Sudden cardiac death remains the third leading cause of death in Europe, with an estimated annual incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) ranging from 67 to 170 cases per 100,000 people. Overall survival remains poor – at 10% or lower. Yet in European hospitals that can implement withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy, more than 90% of patients who survive to hospital discharge have a favourable neurological outcome.
‘However, neurological impairment, fatigue and emotional difficulties are common,’ said Professor Alessandro Sionis, the newly elected president of the Association for Acute Cardiovascular Care (ACVC), speaking at a dedicated session on fast transfers and the hub-and-spoke model.
Marked differences between centres
Sionis, a consultant cardiologist at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain, identified ‘substantial variability’ across cardiac arrest centres (CACs) that is still negatively affecting the quality of care. He pointed to ‘marked’ centre-to-centre differences in outcomes after OHCA, which appear to be ‘partly attributable to variations in in-hospital management strategies and post-resuscitation care.’1