Effects of Epinephrine and Intravenous (I.V.) Needle on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Outcome

Effects of Epinephrine and I.V. Needle on CPR Outcome

Intravenous epinephrine has been part of the guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation since the start. It improves outcome in animal studies, but has never been investigated in a controlled study in humans. Epidemiologic data indicate that it is an independent negative predictor for survival. If this is true in a controlled randomized study, it could be due to effects of the drug itself or more likely due to reduced quality of chest compressions and ventilations due to the time spent on placing an I.V. needle and injecting drugs.

In a randomized, controlled study of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients in Oslo, Norway, half the patients are treated according to the international guidelines for advanced CPR, and the other half according to the same guidelines, except for no I.V. needle or drugs are given until 5 minutes after eventual return of spontaneous circulation.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Cardiac arrest out-of-hospital

Exclusion Criteria:

• <18 years old
• Trauma as cause of arrest