Their large consortium study was the first to distinguish among pediatric age groups, finding that children and adolescents were at least twice as likely to survive to hospital discharge, as were infants and adults.
The findings "indicate that resuscitative efforts for pediatric out-of-hospital nontraumatic cardiac arrest can be effective despite the high frequency of patients with an initially nonshockable rhythm," the researchers said.
They added that the number-needed-to-treat (13) to save a pediatric life based on their data compares favorably with other aggressive interventions that are considered effective, such implantable cardioverter-defibrillators for ventricular arrhythmias (NNT of 8) and immediate revascularization in cardiogenic shock (NNT of 13).
"Furthermore, the potential years of life gained for pediatric survivors are much greater than for adult survivors," they noted.
Part of the confusion over survival rates can be chalked up to the heavy influence of high infant mortality on overall survival figures, they said.
