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Cardiac arrest
OHCA outcome variation largest in asystole
Rhythm-specific regional variation in neurological outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a nationwide registry study in Japan
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-11 · Added 7 October 2026
Across 616,519 Japanese OHCAs, prefecture-level variation in favourable neurological outcome grew with worse initial rhythm — median ORs of 1.19 for shockable, 1.31 for PEA and 1.65 for asystole.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective nationwide registry study (mixed-effects models)
- Participants
- 616,519 adults with atraumatic OHCA, 2019–2023
- Main finding
- Favourable neurological outcome at 1 month: 22.3% (shockable), 2.7% (PEA), 0.2% (asystole); median ORs 1.19, 1.31 and 1.65 respectively
- Caveat
- Purely descriptive — the mechanisms behind the regional differences remain unidentified
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Regional outcome variation is a systems question every Australian service faces, but this describes differences rather than identifying a modifiable cause, and Japan's structure differs from ours.
Learning goal
Understand the system factors that drive regional variation in neurological outcomes for cardiac arrest presenting in asystole.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 7 October 2026
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