Acute cardiac care & resuscitation
Duration of emergency medical services-initiated prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts and survival for pediatric patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Authors' conclusion
In this North American retrospective cohort study of pediatric patients with OHCA, we quantified the time-dependent probability of survival to hospital discharge as a function of prehospital CPR duration. The findings provide EMS clinicians and patients' surrogates with objective insights into the likelihood of survival when CPR is continued beyond 15 min.
Study context
- Population
- Pediatric patients (age <18 years) with emergency medical services (EMS)-treated non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) at ten regional coordinating sites in the US and Canada, Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Epidemiologic Registry, 2011 to 2015
- Participants
- 1,313 included patients
- Exposure
- EMS-initiated prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) duration in minutes and survival to hospital discharge
- prehospital return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC)n = 236
- no prehospital ROSCn = 1,077
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Survival to hospital discharge
Survived to hospital discharge
136
10.4%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Time-dependent probability of survival to hospital discharge for patients with ongoing CPR
- At 1 min
- 7.9% (95% CI: 6.4-9.3%)
- Decreased to less than 1% at
- 14.8 min (95% CI: 11.1-22.0 min)
- Upper bound of 95% CI decreased to less than 1% at 22.0 min
- 0.86%, 95% CI: 0.34-0.94%
Prehospital ROSC
- Achieved prehospital ROSC
- 236 (18.0%)
- Median CPR duration among those achieving prehospital ROSC
- 10 min (IQR 5.5-16.5 min)
- Median [IQR] age
- 1[0-9]
Original publication
Duration of emergency medical services-initiated prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts and survival for pediatric patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Published 25 February 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it