Background: Each year, about 500,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest (either out-of-hospital or in-hospital) in the USA. Although significant improvements in survival have occurred through the implementation of complex high-quality protocols of care, global costs related to such management are not clearly described.
Methods: We will undertake a systematic review of the published literature on costs related to the acute phase of cardiac arrest management (from collapse to hospital discharge). The search will cover the period 1991 to present, and we will include studies written in English or in French involving patients with cardiac arrest of all ages, settings (in- and out-of-hospital arrest), countries, and etiology (including traumatic). The primary outcome will include estimates of costs related to cardiac arrest patients' management in various categories (e.g., resuscitation process, in-hospital management as well as rehabilitation and long-term care facilities) and perspectives (e.g., hospital, societal, or third-payer perspective). Study selection will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and data quality will be assessed by questions adapted from the Drummond economic evaluation checklist.
Discussion: This review will provide an estimate of costs related to cardiac arrest management according to the different components of such a management as well as total costs.
Systematic review registration: International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews PROSPERO CRD42016046993.
Keywords: Costs; In-hospital cardiac arrest; Inpatient costs; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Pre-hospital costs.