Which of the following is a criterion for termination of resuscitation efforts under policy?

• A. The patient is under 18 years old
• B. No return of spontaneous circulation for more than 2 minutes during resuscitation
• C. Resuscitation stopped after 5 minutes for no reason
• D. There was ROSC early

Answer: (C)

Termination of resuscitation is governed by a formal policy that sets when continuing CPR is unlikely to benefit the patient. A common criterion is a defined time window during which CPR has been actively performed without return of spontaneous circulation and without any signs that a meaningful recovery is possible, allowing the team to stop under the policy. In this item, stopping resuscitation after a fixed interval (five minutes) for no reason aligns with a time-based termination rule: once the policy’s threshold is reached and there are no indications of improvement, continuing resuscitation is no longer appropriate. The other options don’t reflect a policy-based termination trigger: age alone isn’t a universal cutoff; a two-minute interval without ROSC is too short to justify termination under typical TOR rules; and having ROSC occur early would generally alter the management plan rather than serve as a termination criterion.