Articles: emergency-medical-services.
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The optimal dose of epinephrine in human cardiac arrest remains an area of continuing controversy. Apart from animal data some anecdotal reports in humans suggest that the dose currently recommended by the AHA may be insufficient for resuscitation of spontaneous circulation during prolonged cardiac arrest (CA). Since 1982, 1610 CA patients registered in Bruges have been evaluated under the following variables: prolonged survival (class 3 CPCR successes); solely restoration of spontaneous circulation (ROSC): class 2a, 2b and 3); epinephrine dose used during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); duration of advanced life support (ALS) and duration of complete CA. ⋯ E. M.) for the total population (n = 1724) was 2.53 +/- 0.06 mg; for patients since March 1989 (n = 114) this number was 5.58 +/- 0.36 mg. In contrast to the period before March 1989, we found a non-significant positive correlation between the survival of class 3 and epinephrine dose by limiting the influence of CPR times in the asystole and electromechanical dissociation (EMD) arrest groups.