A new study has confirmed that giving adrenaline to patients whose hearts stop while in the hospital can greatly improve their chances of survival. The hormone, often used in emergency situations, was shown to increase the chance of restarting the heart by five times when given quickly.
When a patient’s heart suddenly stops beating in a hospital, doctors and nurses must act immediately. The standard procedure is to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which includes chest compressions and artificial breathing. A defibrillator is also used to deliver electric shocks to try and restart the heart. However, these steps don’t always work on their own.
In these cases, medical teams often turn to adrenaline, also known as epinephrine. This hormone is naturally produced by the body during times of stress, such as when we are scared or in danger.
It raises heart rate and blood pressure, opens up the airways, and sends more blood to the muscles and heart—all things that help the body respond to emergencies. It also gives the body a burst of energy by releasing sugar into the bloodstream.
In hospitals, adrenaline has long been used to try to restart the heart during cardiac arrest. It is also commonly used to treat severe allergic reactions. But until now, there was little solid evidence showing how effective adrenaline actually is during cardiac arrest in hospitals.
That’s why doctors and researchers at St. Olavs Hospital and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) decided to study it more closely. The study was led by anesthesiologist Anders Norvik and senior consultant Eirik Skogvoll, and the results were published in the journal Resuscitation Plus.
They found that adrenaline works very quickly—within just one minute of being given through an IV. The first dose greatly increases the chance that the patient’s heart will start beating again. Getting the heart to beat is the first major step toward survival.
The research is important because, for the first time, it offers clear evidence of how effective adrenaline is when used in hospitals during cardiac arrest. The study was made possible because medical staff at St. Olavs Hospital carefully recorded the timing of adrenaline use during resuscitation efforts. This allowed the researchers to separate belief from fact using careful analysis.
However, the study also found that giving more than one dose of adrenaline might not provide much extra benefit. If the heart doesn’t respond to the first dose, giving more may not make a big difference—although this part of the study needs further research to be sure.
Still, the results strongly support what many doctors have believed for years: giving adrenaline quickly during cardiac arrest can be a life-saving step, and the first dose is the most important.
This new evidence could help improve treatment protocols in hospitals around the world, making emergency care even more effective for patients in critical condition.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
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