The Canadian journal of cardiology
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Multicenter Study
The use of amiodarone for in-hospital cardiac arrest at two tertiary care centres.
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. ⋯ Following two years' experience with the introduction of intravenous amiodarone for resuscitation in the institutions, use was less than 50% and no clinically observable survival benefit could be documented. Possible explanations for the difference between this experience and that found in out-of-hospital resuscitation trials include differing patient populations and operator bias during resuscitation. These results should provoke other institutions to question whether amiodarone has improved survival of cardiac arrest under the conditions prevailing in their hospitals. A patient registry or prospective, randomized trial will be required to assess what parameters affect the success of intravenous amiodarone for resuscitation in-hospital.