Resuscitation
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In preparation for the World Congress on Drowning uniform reporting consensus document of drowning incidents we reviewed systematically the medical literature for the terms and definitions used to describe drowning incidents to assess the uniformity of these terms in the medical literature. ⋯ A review of existing drowning literature demonstrates a lack of a standard definition of drowning and a lack of agreement on measures of outcome. This variability in definitions and outcomes makes it very difficult to assess and analyze studies both individually and as a whole and draw conclusions that will influence practice. These objective findings support the need for the drowning Utstein focus on one definition of drowning and validated measures of functional and neurological outcome.