Utstein style reporting of in-hospital paediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Study objective: To report paediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest data accor ding to Utstein style and to determine the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in hospitalized children. Design: Retrospective 5-year case series. Setting. Urban, tertiary-care children's hospital. Participan ts: All patients who sustained cardiopulmonary arrest. Results: Altogether 227 patients experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest during the study period, 109 (48.0%) were declared dead without attempted resuscitation, and CPR was initiated in 118 (52.0%). The incidence of cardiac arrest was 0.7% of all hospital admissions and 5.5% of PICU admissions; the incidence of CPR attem pts was 0.4 and 2.5%, respectively. Most of the CPR attempts (64.4%) took p lace in the PICU and the most frequent aetiology was cardiovascular (71.2%) . The 1-year survival rate was 17.8%. Short duration of external CPR was th e best prognostic factor associated with survival. With few exceptions, the Paediatric Utstein Style was found to be applicable for reporting retrospe ctive data from in-hospital cardiac arrests in children. Conclusions: In-ho spital cardiopulmonary resuscitation was shown to be an uncommon event in c hildren; the survival rate was similar to earlier studies. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.