International journal of emergency medicine
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Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a common cause of death worldwide (Neumar et al., Circulation 122:S729-S767, 2010), affecting about 300,000 persons in the USA on an annual basis; 92% of them die (Roger et al., Circulation 123:e18-e209, 2011). The existing evidence about the use of sodium bicarbonate (SB) for the treatment of cardiac arrest is controversial. We performed this study to summarize the evidence about the use of SB in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). ⋯ The current evidence demonstrated that SB was not superior to the control group in terms of survival to discharge and return of spontaneous circulation. Further, SB was associated with lower rates of sustained ROSC and good neurological outcomes.