Introduction

Cardiac arrest in infancy and childhood is rarely due to primary cardiac disease, unlike in the adult situation. Most are secondary to hypoxia eg birth asphyxia, inhalation of foreign body. Respiratory arrest also occurs secondary to neurological dysfunction eg poisons, convulsions. Whatever the cause, by the time of cardiac arrest the child has had a period of respiratory insufficiency which will have caused hypoxia and respiratory acidosis. This combination causes cell damage particularly in the brain, liver and kidney before myocardial damage is severe enough to cause cardiac arrest. Most other cardiac arrests are secondary to circulatory failure (shock) eg gastroenteritis, burns, sepsis.