Comparison of paediatric basic life support guidelines endorsed by member councils of Resuscitation Council of Asia

• Published in: Resuscitation plus 2023-12, Vol.16, p.100506-100506, Article 100506
• Main Authors: Ong, Gene Y., Kurosawa, Hiroshi, Ikeyama, Takanari, Park, June Dong, Katanyuwong, Poomiporn, Reyes, Olivia C.F., Wu, En-Ting, Hon, Kam Lun Ellis, Maconochie, Ian K., Shepard, Lindsay N., Nadkarni, Vinay M., Ng, Kee Chong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Life support care; Pediatrics; Practice guidelines as topic; Review
• ISSN: 2666-5204; 2666-5204
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resplu.2023.100506

•What is known•There are variations in paediatric life support guidelines endorsed by member councils of Resuscitation Council of Asia. Some member councils have their own published paediatric life support guidelines, while other member councils do not.•What our study adds•This is the first narrative review of paediatric life support guidelines endorsed by member councils of Resuscitation Council of Asia. While some paediatric life support guidelines became more concordant, others paradoxically became more varied in the latest paediatric life support guidelines. This paper sought to provide some insights to these.•The minor differences in the paediatric life support guidelines endorsed by the member councils may provide a framework for prioritising resuscitation researchand highlight knowledge gaps in paediatric resuscitation. Paediatric cardiac arrest outcomes, especially for infants, remain poor. Due to different training, resource differences, and historical reasons, paediatric cardiac arrest algorithms for various Asia countries vary. While there has been a common basic life support algorithm for adults by the Resuscitation Council of Asia (RCA), there is no common RCA algorithm for paediatric life support. We aimed to review published paediatric life support guidelines from different Asian resuscitation councils. Pubmed and Google Scholar search were performed for published paediatric basic and advanced life support guidelines from January 2015 to June 2023. Paediatric representatives from the Resuscitation Council of Asia were sought and contacted to provide input from September 2022 till June 2023. While most of the components of published paediatric life support algorithms of Asian countries are similar, there are notable variations in terms of age criteria for recommended use of adult basic life support algorithms in the paediatric population less than 18 years old, recommended paediatric chest compression depth targets, ventilation rates post-advanced airway intra-arrest, and first defibrillation dose for shockable rhythms in paediatric cardiac arrest. This was an overview and mapping of published Asian paediatric resuscitation algorithms. It highlights similarities across paediatric life support guidelines in Asian countries. There were some differences in components of paediatric life support which highlight important knowledge gaps in paediatric resuscitation science. The minor differences in the paediatric life support guidelines endorsed by