Pediatric Chain of Survival

For best survival and quality of life, pediatric basic life
support (BLS) should be part of a community effort that
includes prevention, basic CPR, prompt access to the emergency
medical services (EMS) system, and prompt pediatric
advanced life support (PALS). These 4 links form the
American Heart Association (AHA) pediatric Chain of Survival.
The first 3 links constitute pediatric BLS.
Rapid and effective bystander CPR is associated with
successful return of spontaneous circulation and neurologically
intact survival in children. The greatest impact occurs
in respiratory arrest, in which neurologically intact survival
rates of >70% are possible, and in ventricular fibrillation
(VF), in which survival rates of 30% have been documented.
But only 2% to 10% of all children who develop out-ofhospital
cardiac arrest survive, and most are neurologically
devastated. Part of the disparity is that bystander CPR is
provided for less than half of the victims of out-of-hospital
arrest. Some studies show that survival and neurologic
outcome can be improved with prompt CPR.