Background: The epidemiology of pediatric potentially sudden death (SD) events and the rescue rate remain unclear.
Methods: We established a birth cohort (2000-2014) from a national database 2000-2015.
Results: Of 3,097,277 live births, we identified 3126 children (56.1% male) with potentially SD events, including 887 who were rescued. The cumulative risk of potentially SD events for each neonate was 0.30, 0.62, 0.91, 1.05, and 1.13 per 1000 by 2 months, 0, 5, 11 and 14 years of age, respectively. Overall, 28.3% of the children were rescued from SD events, with a higher rate in neonates (69.6%) but lower rate in postneonatal infants. A cardiac diagnosis was noted in 596 (19.1%) patients, including congenital heart disease (CHD) (388), cardiac arrest (151), cardiomyopathy (23), myocarditis (12), Kawasaki disease (7) and arrhythmia (36). Coexisting severe CHD and events in postneonatal infancy were associated with a lower chance of resuscitation, whereas events within 1 week of age had a higher chance of resuscitation. Anoxic brain damage was noted in 174 (19.7%) patients and late death occurred in 348 (39.3%) patients after being rescued from SD. Late death was more common in males, those with anoxic brain damage, those with coexisting severe CHD, and postneonatal infants.
Conclusions: In this birth cohort study, the postnatal cumulative risk of potentially SD events was 1 in 885 newborns by 14 years of age. Postneonatal infants and those with coexisting severe CHD had the highest risk and worst outcomes.
Keywords: Adolescent; Children; Infant; Potentially sudden death event; Rescued sudden death.