Abstract 18887: Trends and Outcomes of Use of Inotropes in Cardiac Arrest Survivors With Ventriculartachycardia/Fibrillation

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac arrest remains a public health crisis with only 10% overall survival rate. Patients with arrest secondary toventricular tachycardia (VT)/ventricular fibrillation (VF) have relatively better survival rates. Post-arrest shock is usuallycardiogenic due to structural defects at baseline. The outcomes of inotrope use in this population is not well known. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the use of inotropic support is not associated with better survival outcomes. Methods: This is a cohort study of 387 cardiac arrest patients in a tertiary care center enrolled from January 2012 to December2016 who were able to survive for 24 hours post-cardiopulmonary resuscitation after a VT/VF arrest. We compared thebaseline characteristics and 30-day outcomes of cardiac arrest patient who required inotropes and who did not requireinotropes. Results:Out of 338 cardiac arrest survivors with VT/VF arrest, 99 (29.3%) patients were treated with inotropes. 90 (90.9%) ofpatients in the inotrope group were simultaneously on vasopressors. 30-day mortality was higher (67.7%) in theinotrope group compared to patients with no inotrope use (46.2%). The neurological outcome was worse (cerebralperfusion category ≥3) in patients on inotropes (86.9 vs 63.6%). Conclusions: We observed that mortality was higher in VT/VF cardiac arrest survivors who were on inotropes. These patients hadhigher incidence of vasopressor use and were more likely hemodynamically unstable. Further studies are needed toinvestigate the use and outcomes of inotropes in these subsets of patients.