Authors response to letter entitled 'During a paediatric traumatic cardiac arrest, is ventricular fibrillation a reversible cause like any other?

We would like to thank Dr Lemoine and colleagues for their interest in our paper.1 The authors question the wisdom of deprioritising defibrillation in the presence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) in paediatric traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA).

We have demonstrated that paediatric TCA is rare,2 and we respectfully suggest that VF within this cohort is an even rarer presenting rhythm.

Preventable death occurs most commonly in TCA due to hypoxia, tension pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade and critical hypovolaemia. Survival from VF in the context of TCA is unlikely unless the underlying cause is reversed; indeed, it was felt in the consensus discussions that in the presence of, for example, a tension pneumothorax or an empty heart, restoration of sinus rhythm by defibrillation would not be possible. Once these initial reversible causes have been addressed, then defibrillation may be necessary if the rhythm remains VF.

As a study group, we...

https://ift.tt/2SsG4Fh