Corticosteroids and Cardiac Arrest: One-Minute Journal Club

After a patient suffers a cardiac arrest event, should we be giving them corticosteroids?
This is not something I do currently in my practice so I am intrigued by these data.
There’s a ton of nuance to this brand new systematic review and meta-analysis so please read it for yourself.
This is not medical advice. Hat tip to the authors.
After analyzing over 2000 patients, the authors found that the chances of achieving ROSC were higher when corticosteroids were provided.
There was a trend towards decreased 28-day mortality but we need to remind ourselves that trends don’t mean anything.
Part of the problem of analyzing these data is that there’s no set corticosteroid type, dosage, or duration.
Is this something you routinely do in your practice?
In what situations do you give post-cardiac arrest patients corticosteroids?
Is this something you are considering using in your practice?
Let me know in the comments section.
I have covered corticosteroids in cardiac arrest along with vasopressin before on THIS POST.

Citation for Corticosteroids in Cardiac Arrest

Penn J, Douglas W, Curran J, Chaudhuri D, Dionne JC, Fernando SM, Granton D, Mathew R, Rochwerg B. Efficacy and safety of corticosteroids in cardiac arrest: a systematic review, meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis of randomized control trials. Crit Care. 2023 Jan 11;27(1):12. doi: 10.1186/s13054-022-04297-2. PMID: 36631807.
Link to Article
Link to FULL FREE PDF

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