Special aspects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation: vasopressin as vasopressor, analysis of ventricular fibrillation waveform and tidal volume in an unintubated patient.
Several laboratory studies have shown that vasopressin is a promising vasopressor during cardiopulmonary resuscitation; clinical investigations are currently being performed to determine whether vasopressin is superior compared with placebo or adrenaline during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Ventricular fibrillation median frequency, dominant frequency, edge frequency and voltage amplitude can be used as noninvasive tools to monitor efficacy of ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts. The newly recommended lower tidal volumes of 0.5 litres instead of 0.8-1.2 litres for ventilation of an unintubated cardiac arrest victim have been shown to be beneficial in mechanical models of an unprotected airway.
Wenzel
V
V
Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria. volker.wenzel@uibk.ac
Lindner
K H
KH
Strohmenger
H U
HU