Characteristics of traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients presenting to major centers in Karachi, Pakistan—a longitudinal cohort study

Background Trauma is the leading cause of death for adults under 44 years of age. Survival after traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been reported to be poor, and its epidemiology is not well defined. A few studies have reported better survival in response to pre-hospital life-saving interventions. Currently, no published data on traumatic cardiac arrests in the field exist from low- and lower middle-income countries. We aimed to explore the epidemiology and outcomes of traumatic OHCA patients from Karachi, Pakistan. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study at emergency departments (ED) of five major public and private hospitals of the city from January to April 2013. Data was collected on all adult patients (age 18 years or more) presenting to the hospitals directly from field with cardiac arrest and history of trauma using a structured questionnaire. Patients with do-not-resuscitate status and those referred from other hospitals were excluded.