Vasopressin offers no benefit in cardiac arrest

BOSTON (Reuters) - Adding the hormone vasopressin to standard injections of the heart stimulant epinephrine does not improve the likelihood of surviving cardiac arrest, French doctors reported on Wednesday.

Researchers had thought, based on animal research, that vasopressin might increase the flow of blood to vital organs during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The hormone regulates how the kidneys process water, raising blood pressure and reducing urine output.

But when the team led by Pierre-Yves Gueugniaud of the University of Lyon randomly gave 2,894 cardiac arrest patients both drugs or just epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, they found no difference in the likelihood of surviving long enough to be admitted to the hospital.

And in both groups, the chance of recovering enough to be discharged from the hospital was equally low: 1.7 percent for the drug combination and 2.3 percent for epinephrine alone.

Among the 57 people discharged, 51 percent who just received epinephrine had a good neurological outcome, compared to 38 percent who were given the two drugs, a difference that was not statistically significant because of the small number of patients involved.

The drugs were given after three defibrillation attempts had failed.

(Reporting by Gene Emery; Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)