The Association of Anaesthetists have published the Methods of the 7th National Audit Project (NAP7) of the Royal College of Anaesthetists: peri-operative cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest during the peri-operative period is a complication feared by patients, anaesthetists and surgeons. Estimates put the incidence of cardiac arrest between 2 and 13 per 10,000 anaesthetics, with approximately 1 in 3 patients dying before discharge from hospital. Applying these values to the approximately 4 million annual cases performed in the UK annually suggests some 2000 events and 600–700 deaths. However, as there is currently no systematic reporting system for cardiac arrests during anaesthesia in the UK, the incidence, management and outcomes of peri-operative cardiac arrest are unknown.These issues and others, form the drive for the Royal College of Anaesthetists’(RCoA) 7th National Audit Project(NAP7), which studied peri-operative cardiac arrest in the UK.