Epinephrine In Cardiac Arrest May Do More Harm Than Good
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - 08:10
in Health & Medicine
Cardiac arrest, commonly known as a heart attack, is an often-fatal condition in which the heart stops beating. Epinephrine - adrenaline - is a hormone that stimulates the heart and promotes the flow of blood and current international guidelines recommend administering 1 milligram of epinephrine every 3-5 minutes during resuscitation. Each year, more than 420,000 cardiac arrests occur in the United States. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation are the primary treatments. And it works well, at least in the short term, but administering epinephrine may increase the overall likelihood of death or debilitating brain damage according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. read more
