Acute cardiac care & resuscitationCohort study
Characterizing infections in children after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
- Single-center, retrospective cohort study
Authors' conclusion
Bacterial infections were commonly identified in the first 48 h of admission after OHCA and may be associated with worse clinical outcomes. Future work should investigate how management of OHCA-associated bacterial infections may improve post-arrest outcomes.
Study context
- Population
- Children <18 years old admitted to the PICU within 6 h after OHCA between 2017 and 2022included children, 40 (20%) had a "definite or probable" bacterial infection
- Participants
- 203 children
- Exposure
- Children with definite or probable bacterial infections compared to those with possible or no bacterial infection
- definite or probable bacterial infectionn = 40
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Prevalence of definite or probable bacterial infection · within 48 h of admission
Children with a "definite or probable" bacterial infection
40 (20%)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Median CPR duration · longer with definite or probable bacterial infection
P < 0.001
Survival to hospital discharge · lower with definite or probable bacterial infection
P < 0.01
| Outcome | aOR (95% CI) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survival to hospital discharge | 0.39 (0.15–1.00) | P = 0.05 | |
| ICU discharge | 0.38 (0.15–0.98) | P = 0.046 | |
| 0.10.31310Adjusted odds ratio (log scale) |
- Survival to hospital discharge: adjusted for age, CPR duration and baseline respiratory support
- Survival to hospital discharge: the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval crossed 1 for some analyses
- ICU discharge: adjusted for age, CPR duration and baseline respiratory support
Original publication
Characterizing infections in children after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Published 11 July 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111204
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it