Life support techniques related to survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in infants

Abstract

Aim of the study: The incidence rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) among infants is high; however, little is known about effective life-support for this group. Thus, we examined factors related to 1-month survival after OHCA among infants.

Methods: All infant OHCA cases occurring between 2005 and 2008 in Japan were extracted from the National Utstein Registry. Split-half random sampling and signal detection analysis were used to identify the effective factors on 1-month survival after OHCA.

Results: The mutual interaction of life support techniques and other factors were identified and used to divide the study population into five subgroups. A witness to the cardiac arrest, rescue breathing administered by a bystander, and less than 18 min to hospital arrival or a witness to the arrest, no rescue breathing and less than 7 min for the ambulance to arrive at the scene were found to be related to higher survival after OHCA in infants. The survival proportions for these subgroups were 44.83% (95% CI: 25.58-64.08) and 19.18% (95% CI: 14.64-23.72), respectively.

Conclusion: The probability of survival after OHCA in infants may be improved by a bystander witnessing the arrest and providing the rescue breathing at the first sight of arrest.