The New England journal of medicine
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Multicenter Study
Outcomes of in-hospital ventricular fibrillation in children.
Ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia are less common causes of cardiac arrest in children than in adults. These tachyarrhythmias can also begin during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), presumably as reperfusion arrhythmias. We determined whether the outcome is better for initial than for subsequent ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia. ⋯ In pediatric patients with in-hospital cardiac arrests, survival outcomes were highest among patients in whom ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia was present initially than among those in whom it developed subsequently. The outcomes for patients with subsequent ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia were substantially worse than those for patients with asystole or pulseless electrical activity.