Category: EMS
Keywords: cardiac arrest, EMS, international (PubMed Search)
Posted: 6/16/2026 by Jenny Guyther, MD
(Updated: 6/17/2026)
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This was a retrospective study of the pediatric cardiac arrests over a 5 year period (including COVID years) in Vienna.
Infants (<1 year) had the highest incidence of OHCA among all pediatric age groups, consistent with German registry data showing an incidence of 23.4 per 100,000 in this age group.
Non-shockable rhythms (asystole/PEA) predominated, as expected given that most pediatric OHCA results from progressive respiratory failure or shock rather than primary cardiac causes.
Survival to hospital discharge remained low, consistent with international data showing pediatric OHCA survival ranging from 6.6% for infants to 17.3% for adolescents in the US CARES registry.
Bystander CPR rates and witnessed arrest status were important modifiable factors associated with improved outcomes, aligning with findings from the adult Vienna cohort where witnessed arrests with shockable rhythms had substantially higher survival (39% vs. 9.3% overall).
The study highlighted that even in a high-resource, physician-staffed EMS system, pediatric OHCA outcomes remain poor, underscoring the importance of primary prevention and early bystander intervention
Kornfehl A, Krammel M, Grassmann D, Brock R, Veigl C, Firich V, Hofer F, Hamp T, Domanovits H, Aigner P, Girsa M, Glaninger P, Zajicek A, Sulzgruber P, Sommer L, Koller S, Cardona F, Burda G, Schnaubelt S. Pediatric non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a high-resource metropolitan area: epidemiology and outcomes. BMC Emerg Med. 2026 Apr 13;26(1):150. doi: 10.1186/s12873-026-01584-x. PMID: 41975275; PMCID: PMC13185376.
