title: Observational study of children admitted to United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Paediatric Intensive Care Units after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of children admitted after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) to UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) and factors associated with mortality to inform future clinical trial feasibility.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational study using a prospectively collected dataset of the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) of 33 UK and RoI PICUs (January 2003 to June 2010). Cases (0 to <16 years), with documented OHCA surviving to PICU admission and requiring mechanical ventilation were included. Main outcomes were prevalence for admission and death within PICU. Factors associated with mortality were examined with multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  827 of 111,170 admissions (0.73%; 95% CI [0.48 to 0.98%]) were identified as children admitted following OHCA. PICU mortality for OHCA was 50.5% (418/827). Recruitment into an adequately sized clinical trial would not be feasible with the current prevalence rate. Characteristics at PICU admission associated with increased risk of death included; bilateral unreactive pupils, genetically inherited condition, inter-hospital transfer to PICU, requirement for vasoactive drugs and greater base deficit. Factors associated with reduced risk of death were submersion or a respiratory aetiology and pre-existing respiratory or cardiac conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Less than 120 children a year are admitted to PICUs in the UK and RoI after OHCA, limiting options for conducting UK intervention trials. The risk factors associated with mortality identified in this study will allow risk stratification in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Birmingham Children's Hospital, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Barney.scholefield@bch.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Scholefield
authors.affiliation: College of Medical and Dental Sciences, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Medical School Building, University of Birmingham, Room WF28, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: f.gaosmith@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Birmingham Children's Hospital, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: heather.duncan@bch.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Anaesthesia, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: Robert.Tasker@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Tasker
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Room 8.49 Worsley Building, Clarendon Way, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: r.c.parslow@leeds.ac.uk.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Parslow
authors.affiliation: Perinatal & Paediatric Epidemiology Department of Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology, University of Leicester, 22-28 Princess Road West, Leicester LE1 6TP, United Kingdom. Electronic address: msn@leicester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.affiliation: Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Room 8.49, Worsley Building, Clarendon Way, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: phil_mcshane@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McShane
authors.affiliation: Birmingham Children's Hospital, Research and Development, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, West Midlands, United Kingdom. Electronic address: pd59507@gmail.com.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.affiliation: Birmingham Children's Hospital, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: kevin.morris@bch.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Morris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Cohort study; Mortality; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Paediatric; Paediatric intensive care