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Weekend Heart Attacks More Often Fatal

Unless you’re already hospitalized, the chances of dying after experiencing a heart attack during the weekend is 13.4% greater than if you’d waited to have the heart attack on a week day.  This grim news was presented at the 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago of the American Academy of Neurology held April 12 through 19.

Research team leader Richard M. Dubinsky, MD, MPH, of the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, and American Academy of Neurology Fellow, attributes the higher number of cardiac arrest fatalities during weekends to lack of resources available at the time of need.  During cardiac arrest, the heart slows dramatically or stops beating altogether.  From the onset of the arrest, brain death can occur after just four to six minutes.

The Dubinsky study team analyzed data taken from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database that represents about 20% of all hospital admissions across the United States between 1990 and 2004.  A total of 67,554 hospital admissions due to cardiac arrest was logged.  The study finds that the chance of dying from cardiac arrest is increased by 13.4% when the event happens during a weekend rather than on a week day.

The study also revealed that the average patient suffering a cardiac arrest has gotten younger since the early 1990s.  In the 1990s, the average cardiac arrest patient was 68 years old.  The average age dropped to 66.5 in just ten years.

The number of weekend fatalities spiked during the period between 2000 and 2004, perhaps due to the availability of defibrillators and other improved means of resuscitation not available during the 1990s.  The newer resuscitation measures may have allowed more patients to survive beyond the emergency room and admission to a hospital.

Dubinsky would like to see more emergency resuscitation resources available during weekends to bring the fatality rate more in line with the weekday rate.

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