Practice variability of epinephrine administration in pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States.
Resuscitation plus · 2026-08-18 · Registry study
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (pOHCA) are low frequency, high acuity events for Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The survival rate is low, with only 10% of children surviving, and few survivors having favorable neurologic outcomes. Optimal prehospital management of pOHCA includes rapid epinephrine administration, yet factors contributing to its administration are not well understood. OBJECTIVE: Our study objective was to evaluate the frequency of epinephrine administration in pOHCA. Our secondary objective was to characterize the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with epinephrine administration in pediatric OHCA in the United States. METHODS: In this retrospective, observational study, we analyzed data from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) dataset for the year 2021. We identified pediatric patients ages ≥1 day-old to <18 years-old from "9-1-1" activations that were treated by advanced life support (ALS) clinicians. OHCA events were identified by performance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or defibrillation. We used descriptive statistics to evaluate the frequency of epinephrine administration and assess demographic and clinical characteristics in this population. Multivariable logistic regression model was utilized to find characteristics associated with epinephrine administration. RESULTS: In 2021, 8495 pOHCA events (median [IQR] age: 3.0 [0.3-13.0] years; 58.5% males) were managed by an ALS unit in the United States. Two out of every five (40.2%) pOHCA events did not receive epinephrine. Epinephrine use was more common in younger age groups (1 day-1 year OR, 1.25 [95% CI, 1.07-1.46]; 1-5 years OR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.00-1.38]; 6-12 years OR, 1.59 [95% CI, 1.24-1.79]; referent: 13-17 years), urban population settings (OR, 2.06 [95% CI: 1.79-2.38]), incidents with scene time >10 min (OR, 1.41, [95% CI, 1.25-1.60]), advanced airway attempt(OR 8.33, [95% CI, 7.33-9.47]), and in those receiving defibrillation (OR 1.95, [95% CI, 1.61-2.37]). Odds of epinephrine administration were lower in public settings (OR 0.55, [95% CI, 0.47-0.65]) and in females (OR 0.83, [95% CI, 0.73-0.93]). CONCLUSION: Epinephrine is not given in 2 of every 5 pOHCA events. Longer scene time and additional resuscitation interventions were associated with epinephrine administration. The low rate of administration has implications for further research and reforms in the prehospital care of critically ill children.