Pediatric Peri-Operative Cardiac Arrest (POCA) Registry
- Child Health Department, East and North Herts NHS Trust, Queen Elizabeth 2 Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4HQ, UK
- Correspondence to: Dr A Raffles, Child Health Department, East and North Herts NHS Trust, Queen Elizabeth 2 Hospital, Howlands, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4HQ, UK; drrafflesqe2{at}btinternet.com
An international registry of rare events such as the Pediatric Peri-Operative Cardiac Arrest (POCA) Registry in the US would allow the development of valid standards against which clinical performance could be measured.
With rare conditions, or specific events which do not occur very often, it can be difficult to perform prospective studies which yield sufficient data from which meaningful interpretations can be made. The incidence of cardiopulmonary arrest from any cause—an especially rare event in children—remains at a level such that the collection of quality data is a rarity. Numerous historical studies have reported the incidence and causation of cardiopulmonary arrest,1–3 but most of these use retrospective data, addressing different variables and outcome measures which make a comparison of the data impossible. However, the existence of the Pediatric Peri-Operative Cardiac Arrest (POCA) Registry described in this issue by Posner et al4 shows that collection of large amounts of data from a widely spread geographical population using a sound methodology is, in fact, a realistic possibility.
The success …
