PMID: 16520848Mar 8, 2006Paper

The use of amiodarone for in-hospital cardiac arrest at two tertiary care centres

The Canadian Journal of Cardiology
P Timothy PollakKelly B Zarnke

Abstract

Although amiodarone significantly increases survival to hospital admission when used in resuscitation of out-of-hospital pulseless ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation, there are limited data on its utility for in-hospital arrests. To determine whether the use of amiodarone, as recommended by the year 2000 American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support guidelines, improved survival following its introduction to the resuscitation algorithm at two tertiary care institutions. Charts of 374 cardiac resuscitations were retrospectively studied at the two institutions. Basic survival outcomes and demographic data were recorded for cardiac arrests with ventricular tachyarrhythmias qualifying for administration of antiarrhythmic agents. Qualifying rhythms were present in 95 patients. Clinical uptake of amiodarone was limited. In the 36 patients who received amiodarone, survival of resuscitation was 67% versus 83% (P=0.07) in the 59 patients receiving only other antiarrhythmic agents (chiefly lidocaine [94%]), while survival to discharge was 36.1% and 55.9% (P=0.06) in these two groups, respectively. Following two years' experience with the introduction of intravenous amiodarone for resuscitation in the institutions, use wa...Continue Reading

References

Dec 7, 1967·The New England Journal of Medicine·R GianellyD C Harrison
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Citations

Aug 18, 2016·European Heart Journal. Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy·Andreas LundinPeter Lundgren
Sep 4, 2007·Heart Rhythm : the Official Journal of the Heart Rhythm Society·Nora GoldschlagerUNKNOWN Practice Guidelines Sub-committee, North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (HRS)
Jul 20, 2016·International Journal of Cardiology·Ageliki LainaTheodoros Xanthos
Mar 22, 2018·Frontiers in Neurology·Robert Gürkov
Mar 30, 2011·Resuscitation·Marcus Eng Hock OngMark S Link
Aug 30, 2011·Anesthesiology Clinics·Anna MizziEnrico M Camporesi

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