In-hospital resuscitation treatments and neurological outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest during national academic meeting days: a nationwide retrospective study in Japan

Background: Medical professionals often attend national academic meetings, which may temporarily reduce available human resources and potentially worsen outcomes for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). This study investigated whether the proportion of patients with OHCA who received in-hospital resuscitation treatments differed during meeting days compared to non-meeting days. Methods: This nationwide, retrospective, observational study utilized data from the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine-Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (JAAM-OHCA) registry recorded between 2014 and 2021. Adult patients who experienced OHCA on meeting days were defined as the exposure group, while those who on the same calendar days one week before and after were designated as the control group. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients receiving targeted temperature management (TTM), extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) and coronary angiography (CAG), assessed using multiple logistic regression analysis. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: Among 3932 patients (1357 in the meeting days and 2575 in the non-meeting days), in-hospital resuscitation treatments showed no significant differences: TTM (5.5% [75/1357] vs. 5.6% [143/2575]; adjusted OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.84–1.59), ECPR (3.8% [51/1357] vs. 4.0% [103/2575]; adjusted OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.86–1.85), and CAG (7.4% [101/1357] vs. 6.4% [164/2575]; adjusted OR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.68–1.27). The proportion of 1-month survival with favorable neurological outcomes did not differ significantly between the groups. Conclusions: There was no significant difference in in-hospital resuscitation treatments between patients who experienced OHCA during meeting days and non-meeting days.