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Evidence summaries

Vasopressin Vs Epinephrine for Cardiac Arrest

Vasopressin appears not to be better than epinephrine for cardiac arrest. Level of evidence: "B"

A systematic review 1 including 5 studies with a total of 1519 subjects was abstracted in DARE. There were no statistically significant differences between vasopressin and epinephrine in terms of any pre-specified outcomes: failure of return of spontaneous circulation (5 RCTs; RR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.58 to 1.12), death before hospital admission (2 RCTs; RR 0.72, 95% CI: 0.38 to 1.39), death before hospital discharge (5 RCTs; RR 0.96, 95% CI: 0.87 to 1.05), or combination of the number of deaths and neurologically impaired survivors (3 RCTs; RR 1.00, 95% CI: 0.94 to 1.07).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (variability in results across studies).

    References

    • Aung K, Htay T. Vasopressin for cardiac arrest: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med 2005 Jan 10;165(1):17-24. [PubMed][DARE]

Primary/Secondary Keywords