Outcomes of pediatric patients with COVID-19 and in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Background: Early studies found low survival rates for adults with COVID-19 infection and in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). We evaluated the association of COVID-19 infection on survival outcomes in pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Methods: Within Get-With-The-Guidelines®-Resuscitation, we identified pediatric patients who underwent CPR for an IHCA or bradycardia with poor perfusion between March and December, 2020. We compared survival outcomes (survival to discharge and return of spontaneous circulation for ≥20 minutes [ROSC]) between patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection and non-COVID-19 patients using multivariable hierarchical regression, with hospital site as a random effect and patient and cardiac arrest variables with a significant (p < 0.05) bivariate association as fixed effects.

Results: Overall, 1328 pediatric in-hospital CPR events were identified (590 IHCA, 738 bradycardia with poor perfusion), of which 46 (32 IHCA, 14 bradycardia) had suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection. Rates of survival to discharge were similar between those with and without COVID-19 infection (39.1% vs. 44.9%; adjusted RR, 1.14 [95% CI: 0.55-2.36]), and these estimates were similar for those with IHCA and bradycardia with poor perfusion (adjusted RRs of 1.03 and 1.05; interaction p = 0.96). Rates of ROSC were also similar between pediatric patients with and without COVID-19 overall (67.4% vs. 76.9%; adjusted RR, 0.87 [0.43, 1.77]), and for the subgroups with IHCA or bradycardia requiring CPR (adjusted RRs of 0.95 and 0.86, interaction p = 0.26).

Conclusions: In a large multicenter national registry of CPR events, COVID-19 infection was not associated with lower rates of ROSC or survival to hospital discharge in pediatric patients undergoing CPR.