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

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.