Effects of Epinephrine and Intravenous (I.V.) Needle on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Outcome

Effects of Epinephrine and I.V. Needle on CPR Outcome

Status

Completed

Phases

Phase 2

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT00121524

Enrollment

904

Registered

2005-07-21

Start date

2003-01-31

Completion date

2008-06-30

Last updated

2015-05-29

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cardiac Arrest

Keywords

cardiac arrest, resuscitation, epinephrine, intravenous, survival

Brief summary

Intravenous epinephrine has been part of the guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation since the start. It improves outcome in animal studies, but has never been investigated in a controlled study in humans. Epidemiologic data indicate that it is an independent negative predictor for survival. If this is true in a controlled randomized study, it could be due to effects of the drug itself or more likely due to reduced quality of chest compressions and ventilations due to the time spent on placing an I.V. needle and injecting drugs.

Detailed description

In a randomized, controlled study of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients in Oslo, Norway, half the patients are treated according to the international guidelines for advanced CPR, and the other half according to the same guidelines, except for no I.V. needle or drugs are given until 5 minutes after eventual return of spontaneous circulation.

Interventions

DRUGEpinephrine

Epinephrine 1 mg is given iv. every 3 min during CPR

DEVICEIntravenous needle

An intravenous needle in placed as soon as possible during CPR

DRUGAtropine

Atropine 3 mg iv in initial systole

DRUGAmiodarone

amiodarone 300 mg iv after repeated failed defibrillation attempts

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Cardiac arrest out-of-hospital

Exclusion criteria

* \<18 years old * Trauma as cause of arrest

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
survival to hospital discharge with neurologic outcome	discharge from hospital

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
admit to hospital with spontaneous circulation	hospital admission
one year survival with neurologic outcome	one year after hospital discharge

Countries

Norway

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Apr 2, 2026