ABSTRACT
Anaesthetists can be involved in the resuscitation of children for a number of reasons: a child they are anaesthetising could have a cardiac arrest, they might be a member of a hospital’s cardiac arrest team, or they could be involved in the delivery of care in an intensive care unit. Fortunately, it is rare to have to resuscitate a child – one study puts the incidence of cardiac arrest under anaesthesia at 1.4/10 000 [1] – so an individual can undergo an entire career without encountering it. This presents the problem of training in the skills and knowledge required for successful resuscitation and the retention of those skills. Fortunately, most countries now have courses designed for this purpose – Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), European Paediatric Life Support (EPLS) and Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) are good examples. All paediatric anaesthetists
Introduction 343 Resuscitation guidelines 343 Post-resuscitation care 351 Stopping resuscitation 352
Parental presence 352 ‘Do not attempt resuscitation’ (DNAR) orders 352 References 352
should undertake such training and update their knowledge at regular intervals.
