Monday October 5, 2009
Patients who code while on pressors have low chance of survival

Following pearl contributed by:

Tony Halat, MD
Clinical Instructor in Medicine Department of Medicine,
The Methodist Hospital
Weill Medical College, Cornell University



A small retrospective study looked at the outcome of patients who code in the ICU, including those who were on pressors prior to the code.

In this group of patients only 17% of all those who coded survived to discharge and only 4% of those already on vasopressors at the time of code survived. Interestingly the patients comprising the 4% all had underlying conditions amenable to intervention (myocardial infarction, aortic dissection).

The study concluded that the administration of vasopressors prior to the code strongly predicted non survival.




Reference: click to get article

Outcomes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for patients on vasopressors or inotropes: A pilot study - Journa of Critical Care - Volume 24, Issue 3, Pages 415-418 (September 2009),