Blood alcohol and cardiac arrest

Patients who suffer a cardiac arrest with alcohol present in their blood may, theoretically, differ from patients who arrest in the absence of alcohol. Alcohol may induce certain lethal arrhythmias, deter strenuous resuscitation in the pre-hospital phase and influence the effectiveness of resuscitative manoeuvres. In this study, 150 patients presenting to an Accident and Emergency department with cardiac arrest were tested for the presence of alcohol in their plasma. 49 patients had detectable plasma alcohol and analysis of their pre-hospital resuscitation revealed no significant differences when compared with the 101 patients in whom no alcohol was detected. No particular arrhythmia predominated in the alcohol group, and patients who had alcohol detected in their blood were just as likely to be successfully resuscitated, in terms of both restoration of spontaneous circulation and survival to hospital discharge. The effect of significantly elevated plasma alcohol levels on cardiac arrest outcome remains unclear, however, as only 7/150 patients had plasma alcohol levels above the legal driving limit.