Confirming the Potential use of Vasopressin in Prehospital Cardiac Arrest

Adrenaline is used as the initial drug in the pharmacological management of cardiac arrest in the prehospital setting by the Australian primary health care practitioner. Its use is supported by the Australian Resuscitation Council [ARC].1 Despite modern resuscitative skills employed by practitioners the likelihood of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remains poor. 2 It has been implied that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival within Australia could be as low as 3%,3 this paper explores the possible use of vasopressin in cardiac arrest.