Prehospital use of dexamethasone in pulseless idioventricular rhythm

We investigated the prehospital use of 100 mg dexamethasone for the treatment of cardiac arrest patients with pulseless idioventricular rhythms (PIVR). In the 86 patients studied in this prospective, randomized, double-blind investigation, four of the 46 patients receiving saline and two of the 37 patients receiving dexamethasone survived long enough to be admitted to the hospital intensive care unit. There were no long-term survivors. No benefit from the field use of 100 mg dexamethasone in PIVR could be identified in this study.