Early Epinephrine Administration in Patients with Cardiac Arrest in Case of Shockable Rhythm in ER

Alzahrani, Khalid Yahya; Alghamdi, Abdulaziz Saud; Alghamdi, Omar Hussain; Alrehaili, Yasser Musallam; Halawani, Mahmoud Shehab; Almatrafi, Saleh Jameel; Almotairi, Abdulkareem Khaled; AlMulhim, Bayan Jamal; Alomar, Naif Khaled; Alkishi, Aman Abdullah; Alreshidi, Abeer Abdullah; Alrajhi, Basil Mohammed

doi:10.12816/0043484

Early Epinephrine Administration in Patients with Cardiac Arrest in Case of Shockable Rhythm in ER

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ King Abdulaziz University

² King Fahad Hospital

³ Ohud Hospital

⁴ Ibn Sina National College

⁵ King Faisal University

⁶ Imam Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University

⁷ Alfaisal University

⁸ International Academy for Health Science

⁹ Albatterjee Medical College, SA

10.12816/0043484

Abstract

The objective of the review was to investigate the scientific production and evaluate the effectiveness of epinephrine in the treatment of cardiac arrest in terms of survival and neurological status. PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar databases were searched up till November 2017 for published studies in English language and human subjects discussing early epinephrine administration in patients with cardiac arrest in case of shockable rhythm in emergency medicine. Prehospital epinephrine management may increase short-term survival (ROSC) yet does not improve survival to release, or neurologic results after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest OHCA. Although there is no clear proof of long-lasting advantages complying with the use of epinephrine in OHCA, there is insufficient evidence to sustain altering present guidelines which recommend its management (1 mg every 3-5 min) throughout resuscitation. As a result, there is a need for additional clinical trials to analyze whether lower dosages or alternative regimes of epinephrine administration. Furthermore, one of the most important aspects of care in cardiac arrest is basic life support (BLS) measures, consisting of adequate compressions and early defibrillation.

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