Includes bibliographical references / Objective: To describe the characteristics and outcomes of children admitted to PICU following cardiac arrest between January 2010 and December 2011. Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of routinely collected data. Results: Of 2501 PICU admissions, 110 (4.4%; 58.7% male) had preceding cardiac arrest, 80.6% of which occurred in hospital. Median (IQR) age was 7.2 (2.5 - 21.6) months; 30.8% had chronic underlying disease. Children presented most commonly with respiratory (n=28, 27.2%), cardiovascular (n= 22, 21.4%), and gastrointestinal disease (n= 20, 19.4%). Twenty-eight (27.2%) arrested while undergoing a procedure. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was given for median (IQR) 10 (5 - 20) minutes. Thirty-five (34%) patients received no adrenaline, 44 (42.7%) received up to 3 doses of adrenaline, and 24 (23.3%) received more than 3 doses of adrenaline during resuscitation. Duration of CPR and number of adrenaline doses did not significantly influence patient outcome. Survival to PICU discharge was 63 (61.2%), 57 (55.3%) survived to hospital discharge with half the deaths in PICU occurred within 24 hours of PICU admission. Out of 51 survivors whose neurological status were assessed 32 were normal, 6 had mild disability, 7 had moderate disability and 6 had severe disability. Standardized mortality ratio (actual/mean predicted) was 0.7. The median (IQR) length of stay in PICU and hospital were 3 (1 - 8) and 27 (9 -52) days respectively. Pediatric risk of mortality (PIM2) score was the only variable independently associated with mortality on multiple logistic regression (adjusted OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.02 - 1.07; p=0.0009).

Introduction: Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality following paediatric cardiac surgery. Aim: To determine the incidence, risk factors for and outcome of postoperative HAIs in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCWMCH) in Cape Town. Methods: A prospective observational study of all postoperative cardiac patients admitted to PICU from September 2011 to March 2012. The definitions of laboratory confirmed blood stream infections (BSI), urinary tract infections (UTI), and surgical site infections were based on the Centres of Disease Control criteria. Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) was diagnosed using a modification of the Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS). Results: 110 patients (median age 19 months; 43% male) undergoing 126 surgical procedures were enrolled. Sixty HAIs occurred in 43 (39%) patients (68.3% pulmonary; 13.3% blood; 11.7% wound; 3.3% urine; 3.3% tissue). Nine (8.2%) patients died and their deaths were not related to HAIs.