Letter by Xue et al Regarding Article, “Duration of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Illness Category Impact Survival and Neurologic Outcomes for In-Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Arrests”

The study by Matos et al1 on pediatric cardiac arrests at hospitals within the Get With the Guidelines—Resuscitation Registry (GWTG-R) showed that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) duration was inversely associated with survival to hospital discharge and neurologic outcome. The power of this study is its use of a large data set that includes and adjusts for most of the known factors that can affect final outcomes after cardiac arrest, such as patient age, pre-existing factors, treatment interventions, time and location of cardiac arrest, and initial pulseless rhythm.However, it must be emphasized that patients with a longer CPR duration are probably more severely ill than …