Association of subsequent shock after conversion to shockable rhythm with outcomes stratified by the type of initial non-shockable rhythm in children with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Authors: Goto Y , Funada A , Maeda T , Goto Y 
Published: May 2021

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research)

Background/Introduction: The rhythm conversion from initial non-shockable to shockable rhythm during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by emergency medical services (EMS) providers may be associated with neurologically intact survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in children with an initial non-shockable rhythm. However, the prognostic significance of rhythm conversion stratified by the type of initial non-shockable rhythm is still unclear.

Purpose

We aimed to investigate the association of subsequent shock after rhythm conversion to shockable rhythm with neurologically intact survival and shock delivery time (time from EMS-initiated CPR to first shock delivery) by the type of initial non-shockable rhythm in children with OHCA.

Methods

We analysed the records of 19,095 children (age &lt;18 years) with OHCA treated by EMS providers. Data were obtained from a prospectively recorded Japanese nationwide Utstein-style database for a 13-year period (2005–2017). The primary outcome measure was 1-month neurologically intact survival, defined as cerebral performance category score of 1 to 2. Patients were divided into the initial pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (n = 3,326 [17.4%]) and initial asystole (n = 15,769 [82.6%]) groups.

Results

The proportion of patients who received subsequent shock after conversion to shockable rhythm was significantly higher in the initial PEA than in the initial asystole groups (3.3% [109/3,326] vs. 1.4% [227/15,769], p &lt; 0.0001). The shock delivery time was significantly shorter in the initial PEA than in the initial asystole groups (median [IQR], 8 min [5 min – 12 min] vs. 10 min [6 min – 16 min], p &lt; 0.01). Among the initial PEA patients, there was no significant difference between subsequently shocked (10.0% [11/109]) and subsequently non-shocked patients (6.0% [192/3,217], p = 0.10) regarding the rate of 1-month neurologically intact survival. However, after adjusting for 9 pre-hospital variables, subsequent shock with a delivery time of &lt;10 min was associated with increased odds of neurologically intact survival compared with no shock delivery (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.45; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16–5.16], p = 0.018). Among the initial asystole patients, the rate of 1-month neurologically intact survival was significantly higher in the subsequently shocked (4.4% [10/227]) than in the subsequently non-shocked (0.7% [106/15,542], p &lt; 0.0001). A multivariate logistic regression model showed that subsequent shock with a delivery time of &lt;10 min was associated with increased odds of neurologically intact survival compared with no shock delivery (adjusted OR, 9.77 [95% CI, 4.2–22.5], p &lt; 0.0001).

Conclusions

In children with OHCA with an initial non-shockable rhythm, subsequent shock after conversion to shockable rhythm during CPR was associated with increased odds of 1-month neurologically intact survival only when shock was delivered &lt;10 min from EMS-initiated CPR regardless of the type of initial rhythm.