Epinephrine for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

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Abstract
The low success rate of out-of-hospital resuscitation fuels many studies. The excellent study by Gueugniaud et al. (Nov. 26 issue)1 compares the effectiveness of high-dose epinephrine with that of standard-dose epinephrine for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a large number of patients. Although high-dose epinephrine resulted more frequently in restoration of spontaneous circulation and admission to the hospital, overall survival (indicated by discharge from hospital) was very low (2.5 percent) and not different between the two groups. Overall, the neurologic outcome of patients surviving to hospital discharge was good but not different between the two groups.