Only 4.1% of Older Adults Survive Out-of-Hospital CPR

​In a pooled analysis performed in a systematic literature review published July 3, 2013, in BMC Geriatrics, 4.1% of adults age 70 or older who underwent out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) survived to 30 days or hospital discharge. By comparison, a previous literature review conducted in people of all age groups found a 7.6% pooled survival rate following out-of-hospital CPR. For this review, a total of 23 studies—13 performed in the United States and 8 performed in Europe—and 44,582 older adults were included. In several studies, increasing age was linked to lower survival. The influence of prearrest comorbidity on survival was examined in only one study.