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Cardiac arrest

Poor outcomes after asystolic OHCA survival

Long-term functional and quality of life outcomes for survivors of asystolic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Resuscitation · Added 27 July 2026

Among 12-month survivors of EMS-treated asystolic OHCA, good functional recovery was achieved by only one-third of patients, with most survivors experiencing persistent disability and impaired HRQoL.

Study type
Registry
Design
Retrospective registry cohort with 12-month telephone follow-up
Participants
16,803 adults with asystolic OHCA; 83 survivors, 56 followed up at 12 months
Main finding
Only 0.5% survived to discharge; at 12 months 32.1% had good functional recovery (GOS-E ≥7), 50.0% were vegetative or severely disabled, median EQ-5D index 0.7, EQ-VAS declined from 70.1 to 58.0 (p=0.003); SF-12, EQ-VAS and EQ-5D scores were below population norms.
Caveat
Single-state registry, 80% follow-up, no control group of non-asystolic arrests
Bottom line
Context only

Learning goal

Understand the long-term functional and quality-of-life challenges facing survivors of asystolic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

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