Abstract
Background: Delay in administration of the first epinephrine dose has been shown to be associated with a lower chance of good outcome in adult, in-hospital, non-shockable cardiac arrest. Whether this association is true in pediatric in-hospital non-shockable cardiac arrest remains unknown. Methods: We utilized the Get With the Guidelines - Resuscitation national registry to identify pediatric patients (age < 18 years) with an in-hospital cardiac arrest between 2000 and 2010. We included patients with an initial non-shockable rhythm who received at least one dose of epinephrine. To assess the association between time to epinephrine administration and survival to discharge we used multivariate logistic regression models with adjustment for multiple predetermined variables including age, gender, illness category, pre-existing mechanical ventilation, monitored, witnessed, location, time of the day/week, year of arrest, insertion of an airway, initial rhythm, time to initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hospital type and hospital teaching status. Secondary outcomes included return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and neurological outcome. Results: 1,131 patients were included. Median age was 9 months (quartiles: 21 days - 6 years) and 46% were female. Overall survival to hospital discharge was 29%. Longer time to epinephrine was negatively associated with survival to discharge in multivariate analysis (OR: 0.94 [95%CI: 0.90 - 0.98], per minute delay). Longer time to epinephrine was negatively associated with ROSC (OR: 0.93 [95%CI: 0.90 - 0.97], per minute delay) but was not statistically significantly associated with survival with good neurological outcome (OR: 0.95 [95%CI: 0.89 - 1.03], per minute delay). Conclusions: Delay in administration of epinephrine during pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest with a non-shockable rhythm is associated with a lower chance of ROSC and lower survival to hospital discharge.
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