Impact of COVID-19 in the in-hospital cardiac arrest activations: Retrospective study.

Objective: To analyze whether the characteristics of the patients treated by the in-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest team, IHCA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) were different in the period before the COVID-19 compared to the pandemic period; also analyzing the differences between COVID+ and COVID- patients.

Design: Observational and retrospective study from January 1st, 2018, to December 31st, 2021.

Setting: Tertiary hospital.

Patients: All adult patients over 18 years old requiring attention from the IHCA response team.

Interventions: CPR maneuvers according to the advanced life support guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council published in 2015, as well as the modifications made in the COVID era (2020).

Main variables: Demographic and epidemiological data, activations of the IHCA response team, CA data, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, survival and neurological outcome at hospital discharge.

Results: A total of 368 patients were analyzed: 173 in the pre-pandemic group and 195 in the pandemic group. The neurological outcome was better in the pre-pandemic group, and COVID+ patients had a longer ICU length of stay. However, no differences in the response time of the CPR team or in CPR duration were found, nor in immediate survival or at hospital discharge, between both groups or between COVID+ and COVID- patients.

Conclusions: Changes in CPR care protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemia did not seem to affect response times from IHCA team neither immediate nor discharge survival.