Cardiac Arrest in 20 Infants and Children: Causes and Results of Resuscitation

¹ Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine

Of a group of 20 infants and children who had cardiac arrest after anesthesia or operation, seven were infants less than one year of age. In three-fifths of the cases, one or more signs of respiratory embarrassment preceded cardiac arrest, while pulmonary atelestasis, both focal and lobar, was the common postmortem finding. Other predisposing causes of cardiac arrest were fever, anemia, and debility due to disease or previous surgery.

Eight infants and children were resuscitated. Of these eight survivors, two were resuscitated by artificial respiration plus thumping over the precordium and two by artificial respiration and closed-chest cardiac massage. They recovered completely. Resuscitation by means of direct cardiac massage was less successful. Of the four infants and children resuscitated by artificial respiration and direct cardiac massage through a thoracotomy, three sustained permanent central nervous system injury.