Emergency drug availability for the cardiac arrest team: a national audit

Cardiac arrest teams are called upon to deal with many different acute medical emergencies, including cardiac arrest. However, the drugs that are supplied for them to perform their role differs vastly from hospital to hospital. We have confirmed this in an audit of adult cardiac arrest teams from all the acute hospitals within Wales. The rational use of defibrillation and drugs during cardiopulmonary resuscitation has been standardised according to International guidelines, and there is no reason why resuscitation kits could not also be standardised. Further considerations of drug availability is needed for acute management of other collapsed patients without cardiac arrest, most commonly vaso-vagal syncope, anaphylaxis, hypoglycaemia, fits and respiratory arrest. Based upon recent recommendations from the project team of the Resuscitation Council (UK), augmented by other commonly needed drugs for first aid in the collapsed patient, we propose a reduced and simplified emergency drug list, employing a two box system covering immediate and most secondary requirements. A standardised format of drug kits for use by adult cardiac arrest teams could speed effective delivery of emergency care.