Abstract: Objective: To discuss the roles of simple external cardiac massage in the prehospital sudden death patients. Methods: Among three hundred and ten patients with cardiac arrest,eighty seven cases accepted external cardiac massage before the emergency ambulance arrived,while the two hundred and twenty-three cases didn' t. The effects of cardiac resuscitation in above cases were analyzed with thirty two sudden death patients in hospital during the same period. Results: The rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation had significant difference between the group of which accepted cardiac massage and the group of which didn't accept cardiac massage before the emergency ambulance arrived (P<0.05). The rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation had no significant difference between above 87 prehospital patients and 32 hospital patients (P>0.05). Conclusions: The simple external cardiac massage has great significance on the recovery rates of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and increasing survival in the prehospital sudden death patients.