Clinical dive: Should you consider naloxone during OHCA response?

Inside EMS

This week on Inside EMS, our cohosts discuss a recent study out of UC Davis Health that highlights the benefits of using naloxone in opioid-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest response. Chris and Kelly discuss the results and debate how this knowledge could impact OHCA protocols.

Top quotes

• “If you look at the … survival of hospital discharge, the number needed to treat was 26. So 1 in 26 patients you would do this to has a chance of surviving the hospital discharge. That's pretty compelling. It's going to change my practice.” — Kelly Grayson

• “It's obviously needed information considering how bad the opioid overdose epidemic is in the United States. The numbers are compelling – the fact that this affects so many of our out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and that this actually shows pretty strong evidence of improved outcome.” — Kelly Grayson

• “We think about over the past 20 years, and now with fentanyl being part of that process, we're starting to see a lot more [drug-related cardiac arrests] and there's an urgent need for this evidence that allows us to now figure out if Narcan can make a difference in OHCAs.” — Chris Cebollero

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.