Unexpected Cardiac Arrest in Intensive Care Unit

Unexpected cardiac arrest involves approximately 0.5 to 5% of patients admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Even if they have a technical environment conducive to prompt diagnosis and prompt treatment, patients hospitalized in ICU suffer from chronic illnesses and organ failure(s) that obscure the prognosis of cardiac arrest. Although extra cardiac arrhythmias or intra-hospital arrests are the subject of numerous publications, few studies specifically focus on unexpected cardiac arrest in ICU (none in France). The objective of our work is to produce a prospective epidemiological description of unexpected cardiac arrest in in French ICUs.