While assisting a paramedic in resuscitation of a patient in cardiac arrest, you should expect the paramedic to:

While assisting a paramedic in resuscitation of a patient in cardiac arrest, you should expect the paramedic to:

• A. administer drugs via the IV route to achieve the fastest effect.
• B. give the patient nitroglycerin to increase his blood pressure.
• C. give the patient activated charcoal to rule out a drug overdose.
• D. withhold drug therapy until an intraosseous catheter is in place.

Answer: (A)

In resuscitation, delivering medications as quickly as possible is essential. Intravenous administration provides the fastest route to the central circulation, so the paramedic would expect to give drugs IV to achieve the quickest effect during cardiac arrest. If IV access isn’t readily available, intraosseous access is the next option to avoid delaying treatment, but therapy should not be held until IO is in place—the goal is rapid drug delivery by the quickest feasible route. The other possibilities don’t fit this setting: nitroglycerin is not used in cardiac arrest because it can lower blood pressure and reduce preload when perfusion is already compromised; activated charcoal is for certain overdoses and not part of standard resuscitation; and effectively delaying drug therapy until an IO catheter is placed would waste critical time during a life-threatening event.

In resuscitation, delivering medications as quickly as possible is essential. Intravenous administration provides the fastest route to the central circulation, so the paramedic would expect to give drugs IV to achieve the quickest effect during cardiac arrest. If IV access isn’t readily available, intraosseous access is the next option to avoid delaying treatment, but therapy should not be held until IO is in place—the goal is rapid drug delivery by the quickest feasible route.

The other possibilities don’t fit this setting: nitroglycerin is not used in cardiac arrest because it can lower blood pressure and reduce preload when perfusion is already compromised; activated charcoal is for certain overdoses and not part of standard resuscitation; and effectively delaying drug therapy until an IO catheter is placed would waste critical time during a life-threatening event.