Pediatric perioperative cardiac arrest

Paediatric peri-operative mortality is an objective outcome measure of the safety of anaesthesia and surgery. Information on paediatric peri-operative cardiac arrest is limited in terms of incidence, risk factors and outcome. The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) recommend hospitals anaesthetising children collect data on post-operative outcomes. Anecdotally, heterogeneity exists between trusts in record keeping and finding data for reflective practice is challenging.