The Epidemiology of Airway Management Following Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in the United States

Introduction: Bag mask ventilation (BMV) has been associated with improved survival following out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), however advanced airway placement remains part of pre-hospital protocols for many emergency medical services (EMS) agencies. Hypothesis: To characterize airway management for pediatric OHCA and assess whether BMV alone vs. BMV plus advanced airway (supraglottic airway or tracheal intubation) is associated with neurologically favorable survival. Methods: Analysis of the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival database. Inclusion criteria were age ≤ 18 years, non-traumatic OHCA from 2013 through 2017, resuscitated by EMS. To adjust for covariate imbalance, propensity score matching and entropy balancing were utilized; variables included age category, sex, bystander CPR, and shockable rhythm. The primary outcome was favorable neurologically favorable survival defined as a cerebral performance category scale of 1 or 2. Results: Of 5241 cardiac arrests, 2588 (49.3%) had BVM and 2653 (50.6%) had advanced airway placement. The majority 5118 (97.7%) were resuscitated by agencies using both BMV and advanced airways. Advanced airway placement was more common in older children compared to infants, arrests with bystander CPR, in white and Hispanic children, witnessed arrests, arrests with a shockable rhythm, and AED use (Table). Neurologically favorable survival was significantly higher with BMV compared to advanced airways in bivariate analysis (11.4% vs. 5.7%, p<0.001). In multivariable analysis, advanced airway placement was associated with lower neurologically favorable survival (adjusted proportion 4.9% vs. 13.5% BVM, OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.17, 0.28). These results were robust on propensity analysis 3.0% advanced airway vs.11.9% BMV (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.14, 0.25), and entropy balance 5.9% advanced airway, 15.0% for BMV (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.22). Conclusion: In pediatric OHCA, advanced airways are placed in half of cardiac arrests where resuscitation is attempted. Advanced airway, compared to BMV alone management, is associated with lower neurologically favorable survival.