title: Potential complications of high-dose epinephrine therapy in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest.
abstract: Adults resuscitated from nontraumatic cardiac arrest who received intravenous epinephrine in doses chosen by the treating physician and who survived at least 6 hours were studied to determine if high-dose epinephrine produced more complications than standard-dose. A total of 68 patients were enrolled and evaluated for postresuscitation complications attributable to epinephrine, using a two-tailed t test, and contingency analysis. The 33 patients receiving high-dose epinephrine and 35 patients receiving standard-dose epinephrine were similar in demographics and variables known to affect outcome. There was no difference in potential complications between groups except serum calcium, which was 1.97 mmol/L (SD, 0.20) in the high-dose epinephrine group and 2.10 (SD, 0.20) in the standard-dose group. Hospital discharge rates (18% in the high-dose vs 30% in the standard-dose group) and neurological status on discharge were not significantly different. High-dose epinephrine did not produce increased direct complications in this cardiac arrest population compared with standard-dose epinephrine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Callaham
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kayser
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012151:Resuscitation
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium; D004837:Epinephrine