[Cardiac arrest in children. Causes and future after cardiopulmonary resuscitation].
A 24 months retrospective study was carried out to investigate 133 patients with an unexpected cardiorespiratory arrest (CRA). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was undertaken in all cases. 96 patients suffered CRA outside of hospital, 11 patients in the wards of the hospital, and 26 in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Sixty children (44%) responded to initial resuscitation and 20 patients (15%) survived after discharge, 12 (9%) of them with a good neurologic outcome. The best results were obtained in patients with an CRA in the PICU. The results of this study suggest that survival among resuscitated children is not better than that among adults, but can be improved with early recognition and monitoring of children at risk.