Out-of-Hospital Resuscitation in Children Should Include Rescue Breathing

Adults with witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are more likely to survive when given cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by bystanders. For cardiac arrests of presumed cardiac cause in adults, outcomes are similar whether bystanders administer chest compressions only or use conventional CPR (compressions combined with rescue breathing); in these situations, the American Heart Association now recommends that bystanders administer chest compressions only. Similar data on bystander CPR have not been available for children, and pediatric guidelines continue to recommend conventional CPR. In a nationwide observational study, Japanese researchers studied the outcomes of bystander CPR in 5170 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in children (age…