Amiodarone Compared with Lidocaine for Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest with Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation on Hospital Arrival: a Nationwide Database Study

Purpose The latest resuscitation guidelines recommend the use of amiodarone in adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF) to improve the rates of return of spontaneous circulation. However, there is limited evidence to suggest that amiodarone is superior to lidocaine with respect to survival at discharge. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the hypothesis that amiodarone is superior to lidocaine with regard to the rate of survival to hospital discharge for OHCA patients with VF/pulseless VT (pVT) on hospital arrival.