[Comparison of standard-dose epinephrine and high-dose epinephrine in cardiopulmonary arrest outside the hospital].

Abstract

We compared high-dose epinephrine (HDE) with standard-dose epinephrine (SDE) in improving the outcome of resuscitation after out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest. The SDE group received epinephrine 1mg, and the HDE group received epinephrine 5mg respectively every 5 minutes until the return of spontaneous circulation. There were no significant differences between the SDE group and the HDE group in the rate of return of spontaneous circulation, rate of successful resuscitation and neurologic outcome. However, the rate of successful resuscitation tended to be higher in the SDE group. The ineffectiveness of HDE was considered to be due to the existence coronary artery diseases in the majority of patients, or increase in myocardial oxygen demand by the beta 1-adrenergic effects of epinephrine.