Introduction: In Spain there are many differences between autonomous regions in terms of geography, population distribution and health care organisation. We do not know if these differences could have influenced the characteristics and evolution of cardiopulmonary arrest in children.
Patients and methods: A secondary analysis of data from a prospective, multicenter and previously published study, analysing cardiorespiratory arrest in children was made to compare the characteristics and evolution of cardiopulmonary arrest in children depending on the region where the arrest occurred. We studied 283 children aged between 7 days and 17 years who suffered respiratory or cardiopulmonary arrest. Data were recorded according to the international Utstein style recommendations. Patients were classified according to the autonomous region where the cardiac arrest occurred: Catalonia (94 cases), Andalusia (64 cases), Madrid (61 cases) and the rest of the regions (64 patients). A statistical analysis was performed to compare the characteristics of cardiac arrest, resuscitation, evolution and survival between the four groups.
Results: Sixty percent of patients initially survived the cardiac arrest episode and 33% (94 patients) were still alive one year later. No significant differences in the characteristics of arrest, resuscitation and evolution were found when the autonomous regions were compared. Even though the differences were not statistically significant, there was a tendency to less than expected survival in Andalusia and higher than expected survival in Catalonia.
Conclusions: There are no important differences in the characteristics of pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest, resuscitation, evolution and survival between the autonomous regions in Spain. Additional studies are needed to analyze the hypothetical influence of health care organization and life support training on survival.