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This article aims to provide guidance to health care workers for the provision of basic and advanced life support to children and neonates with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It aligns with the 2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular care while providing strategies for reducing risk of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to health care providers. Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and cardiac arrest should receive chest compressions and defibrillation, when indicated, as soon as possible. Because of the importance of ventilation during pediatric and neonatal resuscitation, oxygenation and ventilation should be prioritized. All CPR events should therefore be considered aerosol-generating procedures. Thus, personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriate for aerosol-generating procedures (including N95 respirators or an equivalent) should be donned before resuscitation, and high-efficiency particulate air filters should be used. Any personnel without appropriate PPE should be immediately excused by providers wearing appropriate PPE. Neonatal resuscitation guidance is unchanged from standard algorithms, except for specific attention to infection prevention and control. In summary, health care personnel should continue to reduce the risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission through vaccination and use of appropriate PPE during pediatric resuscitations. Health care organizations should ensure the availability and appropriate use of PPE. Because delays or withheld CPR increases the risk to patients for poor clinical outcomes, children and neonates with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should receive prompt, high-quality CPR in accordance with evidence-based guidelines.

Highlights • COVID-19 pandemic has changed the risk-benefit balance for cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR]. • Amongst many aerosol producing procedures performed on patients, CPR is a highly aerosol-generating procedure. • Available literature is inadequate to direct clinicians towards keeping low or high threshold for performing CPR in COVID-19 patient.

Sudden out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest is the third leading cause of death in industrialized nations. Many of these lives could be saved if bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates were better. “All citizens of the world can save a life—CHECK—CALL—COMPRESS.” With these words, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation launched the 2019 global “World Restart a Heart” initiative to increase public awareness and improve the rates of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and overall survival for millions of victims of cardiac arrest globally. All participating organizations were asked to train and to report the numbers of people trained and reached. Overall, social media impact and awareness reached up to 206 million people, and >5.4 million people were trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation worldwide in 2019. Tool kits and information packs were circulated to 194 countries worldwide. Our simple and unified global message, “CHECK—CALL—COMPRESS,” will save hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and will further enable many policy makers around the world to take immediate and sustainable action in this most important healthcare issue and initiative.

Despite significant advances in the field of resuscitation science, important knowledge gaps persist. Current guidelines for resuscitation are based on the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation 2015 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations, which includes treatment recommendations supported by the available evidence. The writing group developed this consensus statement with the goal of focusing future research by addressing the knowledge gaps identified during and after the 2015 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation evidence evaluation process. Key publications since the 2015 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations are referenced, along with known ongoing clinical trials that are likely to affect future guidelines. © 2018 European Resuscitation Council and American Heart Association, Inc. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Introduction: Amplitude spectral area (AMSA) predicts successful defibrillation (DF) and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in adults but has not been studied during pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Hypothesis: We characterized DF dose and AMSA during pediatric IHCA from a pediatric resuscitation quality (pediRES-Q) collaborative and hypothesized that a threshold value of AMSA could predict successful DF. Methods: Children i AMSA) and pre-shock AMSA ( p AMSA) [2.5-sec ECG window before defibrillation] for predicting DF success were calculated, together with receiver operator (ROC) curves. Successful DF (sDF) was defined as return of an organized rhythm 5 seconds after DF. Sustained ROSC was defined as >20 minutes without chest compressions. Events with DF due to ventricular tachycardia, inappropriate shocks (i.e. supraventricular tachycardia, conduction block), unavailable AMSA values, and VF events using Results: Between 2015-2018, 34 subjects (median age 7.4 years [1.3,13.1]; median weight 19.4 kgs [8.9, 41.7]) with IHCA due to VF were enrolled. We analyzed 26 shocks in 18 children < 8 years and 25 shocks in 16 children 8 to p AMSA 19.14±8.11 vs.12.0±7.38 mV-Hz, p = 0.0021; i AMSA 19.08±7.38 vs. 11.04±6.57 mV-Hz, p = 0.0053). Area under the ROC curve was 0.765 for p AMSA and 0.796 for i AMSA. Conclusions: We characterized DF dose and AMSA during pediatric IHCA with an initial rhythm of VF and found that sDF was significantly associated with AMSA >19 mV-Hz. Future studies should determine the AMSA threshold that predicts sDF in children due to differences in heart size and cardiac arrest etiology.

Profound hypothermia is managed more and more with extracorporeal life support technology, especially when a patient's circulation is compromised. Many centres do not have rapid access to this service, however, and are still dependent on active internal rewarming techniques--eg, peritoneal and pleural lavage. Such interventions are invasive, and associated with inherent risk. Here, we report our successful experience with an active external rewarming technique in children with profound hypothermia (core temperature20 degrees C).