WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Hospitalized pediatric patients who receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for bradycardia and poor perfusion have a better chance of survival to discharge than those who do not receive CPR until their condition progresses to pulseless cardiac arrest, according to a study published online Nov. 16 in Pediatrics.

Aaron Donoghue, M.D., of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues assembled data on pediatric inpatients (under 18 years of age) from the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, and compared the survival of those with bradycardia and poor perfusion who received CPR to patients who did not receive CPR until the onset of pulseless cardiac arrest (asystole/pulseless electrical activity [PEA]).

Of the patients with bradycardia, the researchers found that 40.7 percent receiving CPR survived until hospital discharge versus 24.5 percent of patients with asystole/PEA receiving CPR. After adjustment for possible confounding variables, CPR for bradycardia with poor perfusion was associated with increased odds of survival to hospital discharge (odds ratio, 1.57) compared to CPR for asystole/PEA.

"Pediatric inpatients with chest compressions initiated for bradycardia and poor perfusion before onset of pulselessness were more likely to survive to discharge than pediatric inpatients with chest compressions initiated for asystole or PEA," the authors write.

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