Pediatric cardiac resuscitation team: a 6 year study.

A cardiopulmonary resuscitation team based in the pediatric intensive care unit responded to 239 cardiac arrests over a 6 year period. Patients with respiratory problems and infectious diseases requiring isolation composed the largest groups in whom unexpected arrests occurred. There was a 78 per cent rate of initial response to therapy and a 47 per cent survival rate. This is almost twice the survival rate of the best previously reported study and five times the average.