Cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) in children has a greater survival rate and a lower incidence compared to adults and ecompasses the concept of a high-acuity low-occurrence (HALO) event Incidence varies according to environment and increases moving into specialist areas: from the community into hospitals and then into theatres. With this increasing incidence survival also increases.

Respiratory arrest has the most favourable outcome when treated early but delay decreases the chance of successful resuscitation when compared to cardiac causes. Endocrine metabolic and infectious causes having the poorest outcomes. The most common shockable rhythm is ventricular fibrillation (VF) followed by ventricular tachycardia (VT), and survival is higher than that from non-shockable rhythms. On both sides of the algorithm survival is dependent on shortest delay to effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before addressing and reversing precipitant causes. The most common precipitating causes of arrest in children are hypoxia and hypovolaemia.