Epidemiology and outcomes of cardiac arrest among children with Down Syndrome: a multicenter analysis.

BACKGROUND: With the increasing prevalence of Down Syndrome, it is unknown if children with Down Syndrome are associated with increased incidence of cardiac arrest and poor outcomes after cardiac arrest. The objective of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology of cardiac arrest and mortality after cardiac arrest among critically ill children with and without Down Syndrome. METHODS: Patients ≤18 years admitted at a Pediatric Health Information Systems (PHIS) participating Intensive Care Unit were included (2004-2014). Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to evaluate association of Down Syndrome with study outcomes after adjusting for patient and center characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 849,250 patients from 44 centers were included. Of the 25,143 patients with Down Syndrome, cardiac arrest was noted among 568 (2.3%) patients with an associated mortality at hospital discharge of 248 (43.6%) patients. In contrast, of the 824,107 patients without Down Syndrome, cardiac arrest was noted among 15,822 (1.9%) patients with an associated mortality at hospital discharge of 7775 (49.1%) patients. In adjusted models, patients with Down Syndrome had a higher likelihood of having cardiac arrest as compared to patients without Down Syndrome (with vs. without Down, OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.03-1.25, P=0.01). Despite having a higher likelihood of cardiac arrest, patients with Down Syndrome were associated with a lower mortality after cardiac arrest (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.63-0.96, P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Both incidence of cardiac arrest, and mortality at hospital discharge in those with cardiac arrest vary substantially in children with and without Down Syndrome.