Non-beneficial resuscitation during inhospital cardiac arrests in a metropolitan teaching hospital.

Background: There is increasing recognition that a proportion of hospitalised patients receive non-beneficial resuscitation, with the potential to cause harm.

Aim: To describe the prevalence of non-beneficial resuscitation attempts in hospitalised patients and identify interventions that could be used to reduce these events.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of all adult inhospital cardiac arrests (IHCA) receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in a teaching hospital over 9 years.