A study of anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest from a Chinese tertiary hospital

BACKGROUND: The present survey evaluated the incidence of perioperative cardiac arrests in a Chinese tertiary general teaching hospital over ten years. METHODS: The incidence of cardiac arrest that occurred within 24 h of anaesthesia administration was retrospectively identified in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University between August 2007 and October 2017. Overall, 152,513 anaesthetics were included in the study period. Data collected included patient characteristics, American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) physical status score, surgical specialty and anaesthesia technique. Cardiac arrests were assigned to one of three groups: “anaesthesia-related”, “anaesthesia-contributing” or “anaesthesia-unrelated”. RESULTS: In total, 104 cardiac arrests (6.8:10,000) and 34 deaths (2.2:10,000) were obtained. Among them, eleven cardiac arrests events were anaesthesia-related, resulting in an incidence of 0.7 per 10,000 anaesthetics. Sixteen cardiac arrests events were found to be anaesthesia-contributing, resulting in an incidence of 1.0 per 10,000 anaesthetics. Cardiovascular adverse events were the major events that contributed to anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest. Differences were found between events related and unrelated to anaesthesia with regard to ASA physical status and anaesthesia technique (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest occurred in 11 of 104 cardiac arrests within 24 h of anaesthesia administration. Most cardiac arrests related to anaesthesia were due to cardiovascular events, including arrhythmia and hypotension after intravenous narcotic, as well as haemorrhage. ASA physical status of at least 3 and subarachnoid block appeared to be relevant risk factors for anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest.