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Cardiac arrest
New Penang OHCA registry shows low survival
Establishment of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest registry in Penang, Malaysia
Resuscitation Plus · Added 16 August 2026
Descriptive analysis of 5,087 OHCA cases showed 16.3% received EMS resuscitation attempts, with only 1.3% 30-day survival despite bystander CPR in 43.5% of cases, and AED deployment in only 7.1%.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Descriptive analysis of first-year registry data (Utstein template)
- Participants
- 5,087 OHCA cases
- Main finding
- 16.3% had an EMS resuscitation attempt; bystander CPR in 43.5%, AED applied in 7.1%, ROSC in 10.3%, 30-day survival 1.3%; median ambulance response time 21 min
- Caveat
- Descriptive single-region data from a newly established registry with very different EMS system to Australia
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Valuable registry data but from Malaysia with different EMS system and longer response times (median 21 min), though low AED deployment findings are broadly relevant.
Learning goal
Recognise the system factors that influence bystander CPR and AED use in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 16 August 2026
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