Long title:
An Observational Study of Neurodevelopmental Outcome After Cardiac Arrest in Children Admitted to Paediatric Intensive Care in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Short title:
NEUROlogical Prognosis After Cardiac Arrest in Kids (NEURO-PACK)
Chief Investigator:
Barney Scholefield
Co-Investigators:
James Martin, Kate Penny-Thomas, Sarah Evans, Mirjam Kool, Roger Parslow, Richard Feltbower, Elizabeth S Draper, Victoria Hiley, Alice J Sitch, Hari Krishnan Kanthimathinathan, Kevin P Morris, Fang Smith, NEUROPACK Investigators for the Paediatric Intensive Care Society-Study Group (PICS-SG)
Organisation:
University Of Birmingham
Funder:
BRS is funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist Fellowship (NIHR-CS-2015-15-016) for this research project.
Lay Summary:
Each year about 2000 children suffer a cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart’s activity) in the UK due to various reasons and a fifth are admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) after efforts to restart their hearts’ activity (resuscitation). Many of these children eventually die and among those who survive, some will be left with significant brain damage affecting their quality of life. It is difficult for doctors caring for such children soon after admission to PICU to predict how much brain damage has occurred and if it will improve with time. Current methods of prediction used by doctors to assess extent of brain damage and future outcome are inconsistent and less than accurate. This may contribute to differences in how these children are treated in different hospitals and add to the distress felt by the parents of these children in such difficult situations.
NEURO-PACK study aims to study the neurodevelopmental status of children who survive cardiac arrest and are followed up after 3 months. Children aged more than 24 hours up to their 16th birthday and who are admitted to PICU after a cardiac arrest and needing mechanical ventilation be eligible to participate. This study is being conducted in UK PICU’s who are taking part in the Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network, NET-PACK 3 audit.
The functional status and consequences of brain damage will be assessed via a questionnaire over the telephone after 3 month. This outcome information will be combined with data regarding the cardiac arrest collected by the NET-PACK 3 audit at the time of admission to PICU. These will then be analyzed and used to construct a tool which will help doctors to predict which children with cardiac arrest may survive with minimal brain damage.