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Traumatic arrest in older adults
Prehospital management and outcomes of traumatic cardiac arrest in older adults: a French nationwide registry study
Resuscitation Plus · Added 22 September 2026
French national registry study of 5,595 traumatic cardiac arrests comparing older (≥65) with younger adults — older patients achieved ROSC more often (22.5% vs 18.6%) but 30-day survival was lower (0.5% vs 1.2%), leading the authors to argue age alone shouldn't preclude resuscitation though a concurrent medical cause should be sought
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Multicentre national registry cohort
- Participants
- 5,595 adults with traumatic cardiac arrest (1,346 aged ≥65)
- Main finding
- Older patients achieved ROSC more often (22.5% vs 18.6%; OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.03–1.45) but had lower 30-day survival (0.5% vs 1.2%; OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.15–0.81); fewer trauma-specific interventions, e.g. thoracostomy 15.2% vs 23.9%
- Caveat
- Registry data from the French system; residual confounding including unmeasured injury severity and medical causes of arrest
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). transferability — haemorrhage control and chest-injury care are AP scope (CMG 17), but the interventions studied — prehospital fluid resuscitation and thoracostomy — sit beyond ACTAS practice; the age-based prognosis message transfers, the techniques don't
Learning goal
Weigh the value of aggressive traumatic cardiac arrest management in older adults while recognising treatable reversible causes.
More
- Topic: Trauma
- Daily scan: 22 September 2026
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