Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Amiodarone and bretylium in the treatment of hypothermic ventricular fibrillation in a canine model.
Refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a complication of severe hypothermia. Despite mixed experimental data, some authors view bretylium as the drug of choice in hypothermic VF. Bretylium was removed from Advanced Cardiac Life Support guidelines, and, to date, efficacy of amiodarone in hypothermia is unknown. ⋯ In this model of severe hypothermic VF, neither amiodarone nor bretylium was significantly better than placebo in improving the resuscitation rate.