A Prospective Study of the Epidemiology of Out-of-Hospital Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Arrest

Hahn, Seung hoon; Lee, Won chul

Abstract

PURPOSE: Data regarding out-of-hospital pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest have been limited to the retrospective study. This study was performed to analyze the epidemiology and outcome of out-of-hospital pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest(CPA) with the international consensus in a single hospital.
METHODS
Children less than 15 years old who entered emergency department with CPA, between 1st March 2004 and 31st July 2007, were included this study. Data were recorded prospectively following Utstein's template. The characteristics and outcomes of patients were analyzed.
RESULTS
Cardiopulmonary arrests occurredin total of 37 of 21,339 children presented to emergency department during 41 months study period. 15 out of 37 with CPA had return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after resuscitation, 4 survived to be discharged from the hospital. The rate of ROSC in the respiratory arrest is higher than the cardiac arrest. Trauma was the most common cause of out-of-hospital pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest. No children who had more 20 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or took more than 3 doses of epinephrine survived.
CONCLUSIONS
The 10.4% survival rate after out-of-hospital pediatric CPA is poor. The respiratory arrest is more favorable. Education of basic life support for publics is needed to increase the rate of ROSC and survival from out-of-hospital pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest.