Michele Olsufka

TL;DR: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of intravenous amiodarone in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest found no significant difference in the mean duration of the resuscitation attempt or the proportion of patients who required additional antiarrhythmic drugs after the administration of the study drug.

TL;DR: The routine provision of approximately 90 seconds of CPR prior to use of AED was associated with increased survival when response intervals were 4 minutes or longer, and among survivors, the proportion having favorable neurologic function at hospital discharge increased.

TL;DR: A major decline in the incidence of out-of-hospital VF and in all cases of treated cardiac arrest presumably due to heart disease in Seattle is observed, likely to reflect the national decline in coronary heart disease mortality.

TL;DR: Although use of prehospital cooling reduced core temperature by hospital arrival and reduced the time to reach a temperature of 34°C, it did not improve survival or neurological status among patients resuscitated from prehospital VF or those without VF.

TL;DR: These pilot data suggest that infusion of up to 2 L of 4°C normal saline in the field is feasible, safe, and effective in lowering temperature, and it is proposed that the effect of this cooling method on neurological outcome after cardiac arrest be studied in larger numbers of patients, especially those whose initial rhythm is ventricular fibrillation.