Up to 9.6% of cardiac arrest patients with favorable outcomes recover consciousness after the recommended 7 days of observation, indicating the observation time of 7 days seems justified but longer duration may be needed.

The results of the culturally and clinically isolated population may limit the application to other population.

There were 395 patients exhibiting favorable neurologic recovery (n = 357 in the early group, n = 38 in late group) and 134 patients exhibiting poor neurologic recovery (poor recovery group).

Among patients who remained unconscious on day 7, delayed awakening was associated with male sex (odds ratio [OR], 3.905; 95% CI, 1.153–13.221), prehospital return of spontaneous circulation (OR, 7.628; 95% CI, 2.084–27.922), therapeutic hypothermia (OR, 4.320; 95% CI, 1.624–11.488), and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (OR, 4.508; 95% CI, 1.414–14.371).

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