Pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A collective review

Little information is available about the effects of CPR in children, altho ugh it is known that the outcomes are dismal. Examples of unanswered questi ons include which advanced life support (AIS) procedures should be performe d out-of-hospital, whether high-dose epinephrine improves survival, and the true prevalence of ventricular fibrillation as a presenting rhythm. Childr en differ from adults as to the cause and pathophysiology of cardiopulmonar y arrest, but prehospital EMS and hospital resuscitation teams were initial ly designed for the care of adults. Because pediatric cardiopulmonary arres t is rare, prospective data are,difficult to gather, and there are few larg e published studies. The purpose of this collective review was to review th e current body of knowledge regarding survival rates and outcomes in pediat ric CPR and, based on this review, to outline a course for future research.