Cardiac Arrest Survivorship
Research Hub

Objective: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a devastating event that can have ongoing neurological and functional sequelae for survivors, which impact their whānau/family and society. Information on long-term survival remains incomplete. We aimed to understand the long-term neurological, functional, and health-related quality of life outcomes and survival of patients with OHCA at 24 months in New Zealand. Design: We performed a preplanned prospective, longitudinal cohort study. Setting: New Zealand Participants: Participants enrolled in the Targeted Therapeutic Mild Hypercapnia after resuscitated Cardiac Arrest (TAME trial) in New Zealand. Main outcome measures: Participants had a comprehensive follow-up at 6 and 24 months using the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended to determine neurological outcome as well as multiple other patient-centred functional outcome assessment tools. Results: We included all 200 TAME participants enrolled in New Zealand, of whom 194 (97%) had 24-month data. There was no difference in the primary and secondary TAME study outcomes between groups, with overall 56.3% of participants having a favourable neurological outcome at 6 months. In the New Zealand subpopulation, functional and health-related quality of life status at 24 months was not worse than at 6 months for most survivors, with very few participants reporting more than slight disability. Conclusions: Among New Zealand TAME trial participants, neurological and functional outcomes measured across multiple domains generally remained stable or improved between 6 and 24 months. These findings provide important information for survivors of OHCA, their whānau/family, clinicians, and researchers on the timing and trajectory of neurological and functional recovery. Source: Parke RL et al. Critical Care and Resuscitation (2026). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccrj.2026.100212. Abstract retrieved from OpenAlex (https://openalex.org/W7211997410). Reproduced under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Abstract wording unchanged; section-heading formatting adapted.

Psychological and cognitive problems frequently persist after cardiac arrest, even among survivors with favourable neurological recovery. We systematically reviewed whether structured approaches to the identification and assessment of psychological, emotional or cognitive sequelae improve patient- or key supporter-relevant outcomes. MEDLINE, Embase and CENTRAL were searched from inception to December 2025. Among 1,605 records, none met the prespecified eligibility criteria. The absence of eligible comparative evidence precludes evidence-based recommendations regarding which instruments, thresholds, timing or multidisciplinary pathways should be used. Pragmatic comparative studies should urgently test reproducible screening-to-care pathways against usual care, incorporating diagnostic confirmation, referral, treatment access and survivor-centred outcomes.

Parenting is a multi-domain capacity integrating emotional availability, executive functioning, physical caregiving, and a coherent self-narrative. When a parent survives critical illness and develops post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), these foundations may be disturbed concurrently, yet parenting has not been studied as an outcome of adult ICU survivorship. This biopsychosocial review treats parenting as the central phenomenon, drawing on family systems, attachment, ecological, and trauma transmission frameworks. We conducted a narrative review with a structured search and a hierarchical synthesis ranking sources by proximity to the target phenomenon. No identified study measured parenting outcomes after adult ICU admission, and no adult ICU, PICS, or cardiac arrest survivorship study in our retrieved body of literature recorded whether patients had dependent children. Available evidence suggests parenting capacity may be constrained: survivors carry impairment across the domains that scaffold parenting; well co-parents experience burden that reshapes co-parental functioning; and children show vulnerabilities consistent with secondary traumatic stress and disrupted attachment in analogous contexts. Children’s involvement in family recovery is not uniformly harmful, varying along a continuum of caregiving load, with risk concentrated where sustained load coincides with role reversal, obligation, concealment, and absent adult alternatives. We propose, as a preliminary organising framework rather than a validated syndrome, that children of PICS survivors be recognised as a distinct affected population (a PICS-F-Children construct), that parenting become a measured outcome in PICS research, and that family-systems-informed screening be integrated into ICU follow-up. Source: Gurgel AL, O’rourke D, Mendes H. Psychology, Health & Medicine (2026). https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2026.2729847. Reproduced under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Abstract wording unchanged.