Pediatric Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest in Osaka from the Utstein Osaka Project

• Published in: Nihon Kyukyu Igakukai Zasshi 2003/03/15, Vol.14(3), pp.131-137
• Main Authors: Shinya, Hiroshi, Hiraide, Atsushi, Yukioka, Hidekazu, Morita, Hiroshi, Nishiuchi, Tatsuya, Ikeuchi, Hisashi, Hayashi, Yasuyuki, Matsusaka, Masanori, Kiuchi, Shun-ichiro, Nakatani, Toshio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: child; out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA); resuscitation; sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); utstein style
• ISSN: 0915-924X; 1883-3772
• DOI: 10.3893/jjaam.14.131

We describe the epidemiological and etiological features of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in children using the Utstein style. Among 5, 047 consecutive cases of OHCA reported between May 1998 and April 1999, 147 were under 16 years of age. The annual incidence of OHCA was 10.3/105 and was significantly lower compared with adults (66.1/105). However the incidence of OHCA in infants reached 79/105 and was significantly higher compared with adults. The percentage of arrests of cardiac etiology was lower compared with that in adult cases. The frequency of bystander-witnessed cardiac arrests was also lower in children than in adults. The percentage of bystander-CPR was higher in children than that in adults. The 1-month survival rate was higher in children than in adults. Of 147 cases, 68 cases were infants (0 years), 43 cases were preschool children (1-6 years), and 36 cases were school children (7-15 years). In infants, there was no significant history related to the event in the majority of cases. We speculated that the number of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) might have reached 41 cases, based on our results, whereas the current mortality statistics reported 17. The current number of SIDS cases might therefore be underestimated. In school children the major cause of arrests was non-cardiac in origin, such as traffic trauma and falls. In preschool children causes of cardiac and non-cardiac origin were roughly equal. The features of OHCA was clearly different among infant, preschool and school children. This is important when we investigate pediatric OHCA data.