The survival rate of patients with sudden cardiac arrest was tallied at 9.2% as of last year. It is the highest level since then. Increased bystander CPR had a large impact.
The National Fire Agency and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency held the 14th sudden cardiac arrest survey symposium on the 9th and released the 2024 sudden cardiac arrest survey results with this content.
Last year, a total of 33,034 sudden cardiac arrest patients were transported by the 119 emergency medical service to medical institutions. Of these, men accounted for 64.3% (21,237), and the share of those 70 and older was high at 53%.
As for causes of sudden cardiac arrest, diseases such as myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, and stroke accounted for 76.7%, while external factors such as falls and traffic accidents were 22.8%. The most common place of occurrence was the home at 44.8%.
The survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest patients hit a record high, and the rate of brain function recovery was also the highest since the survey at 6.3%. This is thanks to the steady increase in CPR. The bystander CPR rate more than doubled from 14.1% in 2015 to 30.3% last year.
When CPR was performed before hospital arrival, the survival rate was 14.4%, 2.4 times higher than 6.1% when it was not performed. The rate of brain function recovery was also 11.4% when CPR was performed and 3.5% when it was not.
At the symposium, major revisions to the CPR guidelines were also shared. It proposed that when performing chest compressions, the rescuer's main hand should face downward. When cardiac arrest occurs after drowning, it recommended that trained rescuers start with rescue breaths.