Although there are many reports on sudden cardiac arrest occurring outside the hospital, little is known about the precise prognostic factors that determine the outcome after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Clinical information before and immediately after sudden cardiac arrest is frequently incomplete because the event occurs outside the hospital. We studied 90 consecutive patients with sudden and unexpected cardiac arrest who were resuscitated in the general ward of our hospital. Twenty-five (28%) were discharged from the hospital. Multivariate analysis revealed that the promptness of initiation of CPR, age, severity of cardiac dysfunction, time and the type of arrhythmia are of significance in relation to survival. To evaluate long-term survival after hospital cardiac arrest, we analyzed long-term follow-up data accumulated during a 16 year period. In the group of 25 patients in our study, there have been a total of 10 deaths (40%). Five of the 10 deaths resulted from recurrent cardiac arrest and 1 was a noncardiac death. There was a high rate of recurrence of cardiac arrest in the first year following resuscitation, especially among the cardiomyopathy patients.