Background: In Germany, 70.000 to 100.000 persons per year suffer from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Despite medical progress survival rates with good neurological outcome remain low. For many important clinical issues, no or only insufficient evidence from randomized trials is available. Therefore, a systemic and standardized acquisition of the treatment course and of the outcome of OHCA patients is warranted.

Study Design: The German Cardiac Arrest Registry (G-CAR) is an observational, prospective, multicenter registry. It will determine the characteristics, initial treatment strategies, invasive procedures, revascularization therapies and the use of mechanical circulatory support devices with a focus on extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A special feature is the prospective 12-month follow-up evaluating mortality, neurological outcomes and several patient-reported outcomes in the psychosocial domain (health-related quality of life, depression/anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and reintegration to normal living). In a pilot phase of 24 months, 15 centers will include approximately 400 consecutive OHCA patients ≥18 years with presumed underlying cardiovascular cause. Parallel to and after the pilot phase, scaling up of G-CAR to national level is envisaged.

Conclusions: G-CAR is the first national registry including a long-term follow-up for adult OHCA patients with presumed underlying cardiovascular cause and long-term follow-up. Primary aim is a better understanding of the determinants of acute and long-term outcomes with the perspective of an optimized treatment.

KEYWORDS: cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), registry, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR), cardiac arrest center (CAC), post-resuscitation care.