Adrenaline ( epinephrine) on the way out if you have a cardiac arrest?
Dr Malik was on Vanessa’s show on BBC Radio London trying to explain a major new trial that looks to see if adrenaline, given in many cardiac arrest situations, does harm or good. It had been in standard guidelines for decades, but recent work suggests that it might actually do harm. A Japanese study suggested it might increase brain injury and reduce survival!
A proper “double blind” randomised trial is one where the doctor AND the patient do not know the active treatment. Thus, they can’t be biased in seeing if the active treatment is successful. These trials are only done when it is uncertain it the treatment really works.
In cardiac arrest, the patient cannot consent to being in the study, but this new trial overcomes that as the question to be answered is so important, and consent CANNOT be gained in advance. Although there is a placebo (sham treatment) arm, that is only because NO treatment with adrenaline might actually be better than having it.
Good luck to them. I want to know the answer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28770885