Out-of-hospital arrests attending an Australian tertiary paediatric emergency department over 13 years: An observational study.

Objective: In paediatric cardiopulmonary arrest, International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) states, 'there are no simple guidelines to determine when resuscitative efforts become futile'. Considerations to assist this decision-making include cause of arrest, pre-existing medical conditions, age, site of arrest, duration of untreated cardiopulmonary arrest, witnessed arrest and presence of shockable rhythm. Outcomes are poor in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), particularly for infants.

Middle aortic syndrome--an 8-year story of pills, pretty balloons and struts.

Background: Middle aortic syndrome (MAS) is an uncommon cause of hypertension in children. The management of hypertension secondary to MAS frequently requires several anti-hypertensive medications along with endovascular and often surgical intervention.

Case-diagnosis/treatment: A 9-year-old boy presented with headaches and vomiting and was diagnosed with severe hypertension secondary to idiopathic MAS affecting a long segment of the abdominal aorta and left renal artery stenosis.

Malignant hypertension secondary to renovascular disease during infancy--an unusual cause of failure to thrive.

An 11-month-old girl presented with a history of failure to thrive, vomiting, polydipsia, polyuria and visual inattention. She was found to have malignant hypertension due to unilateral renal artery stenosis. This was successfully treated with percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty.