Last updated 1/27/25
Picture this: EMS arrives at your ED with a patient in cardiac arrest, CPR in progress. As they deliver their handoff, one of the paramedics mentions that the patient might have a history of opioid use disorder. Now you're faced with the question: “Should you add naloxone to your resuscitation efforts?”
2023 AHA Update on Management of Patients with Cardiac Arrest of Life Threatening Toxicity due to Poisoning points out in cases of suspected opioid overdose that “there are no studies demonstrating improvement in patient outcomes from administration of naloxone during cardiac arrest. Provision of CPR should be the focus of initial care. Naloxone can be administered along with standard care if it does not delay components of high-quality CPR”. Since this update, there have been two studies looking at this topic.