Acute cardiac care & resuscitation
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest secondary to electrocution: Characteristics and outcomes
Authors' conclusion
Electrocution cases had a similar likelihood of presenting in a shockable rhythm to medical causes. Electrocution was not an independent predictor of survival, with favourable prognosis appearing to be attenuated by other factors, including younger age and a higher proportion of initial shockable rhythms.
Study context
- Population
- Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests (OHCA) secondary to electrocution, compared with medical and other non-medical aetiologies, between 2000 and 2023OHCA cases included in the study, 113 (0.1%) secondary to electrocution
- Participants
- 118,677 arrests
- Exposure
- OHCA secondary to electrocution with medical and other non-medical aetiologies
- Electrocutionn = 113reference
- Outcome
- Crude incidence of OHCA secondary to electrocution
- Follow-up
- 2000 to 2023
Methodological detailsMultivariable logistic regression
- Multivariable logistic regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Crude incidence
- 0.11 per 100,000 person-years
- Reducing significantly over time
- p <0.001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Estimate | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presenting in a shockable rhythmMedical causesvs ElectrocutionAdjusted for arrest characteristics | AOR 1.08 (95% CI 0.59–2.01) | P = 0.790 | |
| Presenting in a shockable rhythmNon-medical causesvs ElectrocutionAdjusted for arrest characteristics | AOR 0.07 (95% CI 0.04–0.14) | P < 0.001 | |
| Survival to hospital dischargeMedical causesvs ElectrocutionUnadjusted; higher odds of survival with electrocution · unadjusted odds | OR 0.21 (95% CI 0.21–0.80) | P = 0.009 | |
| Survival to hospital dischargeNon-medical causesvs ElectrocutionUnadjusted; higher odds of survival with electrocution · unadjusted odds | OR 0.20 (95% CI 0.10–0.39) | P < 0.001 | |
| 0.050.21520Ratio (log scale) |
- Presenting in a shockable rhythm: odds similar between electrocution and medical causes; the abstract does not print the direction of the ratio
Patient characteristics
- Electrocution cases were more likely to be male, occur in a workplace, and present in a shockable rhythm compared to medical and non-medical causes
Survival to hospital discharge
- Not significant after adjustment for differences in arrest characteristics
Original publication
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest secondary to electrocution: Characteristics and outcomes. Resuscitation. Published 30 June 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →