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Adrenaline timing not tied to paediatric OHCA survival
Timing of the Adrenaline Administration in Witnessed Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Retrospective, National Cohort Study in Japan, Using a 2014-2020 Dataset
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine · 2026-10-30 · Added 31 October 2026
A Japanese national registry study of 259 witnessed paediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrests given adrenaline, using time-dependent propensity matching to address resuscitation-time bias, found no adrenaline timing window was associated with better one-month survival or neurological outcome.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective national registry cohort with time-dependent propensity matching (JAAM-OHCA, Japan)
- Participants
- 259 children with witnessed OHCA who received adrenaline
- Main finding
- No timing window (1–10 through 26–30 minutes after EMS contact) showed an association with one-month survival; risk ratios ranged 0.97–2.94 with confidence intervals crossing 1
- Caveat
- Only 259 children split across six timing windows, leaving every interval underpowered
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (High relevance). Adrenaline is carried by every Australian ambulance service and paediatric arrest is among the hardest calls crews run, so timing evidence on a drug all crews deliver is directly relevant.
Learning goal
Weigh the role of adrenaline timing in my management of witnessed paediatric cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Paediatrics
- Daily scan: 31 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 31 October 2026
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