A paediatric "cardiac arrest" survey.

In the calendar year 1981 a prospective survey was carried out at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney, to investigate patients who sustained a cardiorespiratory arrest (CRA). Forty-one patients suffered CRA in the wards of the hospital and eight patients in the operating theatre or recovery ward. Thirty-three patients (66%) responded to initial resuscitation and 21 patients (42%) survived to leave hospital. Of the 41 patients who sustained CRA in the wards of the hospital, 15 had neurological disease, 12 respiratory disease, four septicaemia and three complex congenital heart disease.