• Stephan Katzenschlager, Inga K Kelpanides, Patrick Ristau, Matthias Huck, Stephan Seewald, Sebastian Brenner, Florian Hoffmann, Jan Wnent, Jo Kramer-Johansen, TjelmelandIngvild B MIBMFaculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.Institute for Emergency Medicine, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.Division of Prehospital Services, Oslo University Hospita, Markus A Weigand, Jan-Thorsten Gräsner, and Erik Popp.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 420, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany. stephan.katzenschlager@med.uni-heidelberg.de.
• Crit Care. 2023 Sep 7; 27 (1): 349349.

AimThis work provides an epidemiological overview of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in children in Germany between 2007 and 2021. We wanted to identify modifiable factors associated with survival.MethodsData from the German Resuscitation Registry (GRR) were used, and we included patients registered between 1st January 2007 and 31st December 2021. We included children aged between > 7 days and 17 years, where cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was started, and treatment was continued by emergency medical services (EMS). Incidences and descriptive analyses are presented for the overall cohort and each age group. Multivariate binary logistic regression was performed on the whole cohort to determine the influence of (1) CPR with/without ventilation started by bystander, (2) OHCA witnessed status and (3) night-time on the outcome hospital admission with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC).ResultsOHCA in children aged < 1 year had the highest incidence of the same age group, with 23.42 per 100 000. Overall, hypoxia was the leading presumed cause of OHCA, whereas trauma and drowning accounted for a high proportion in children aged > 1 year. Bystander-witnessed OHCA and bystander CPR rate were highest in children aged 1-4 years, with 43.9% and 62.3%, respectively. In reference to EMS-started CPR, bystander CPR with ventilation were associated with an increased odds ratio for ROSC at hospital admission after adjusting for age, sex, year of OHCA and location of OHCA.ConclusionThis study provides an epidemiological overview of OHCA in children in Germany and identifies bystander CPR with ventilation as one primary factor for survival. Trial registrations German Clinical Trial Register: DRKS00030989, December 28th 2022.© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

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