Brain fears for heart victims given adrenaline

GIVING adrenaline to people who have had a cardiac arrest barely boosts their survival chances but nearly doubles their risk of suffering brain damage, a major trial found.

Officials are reviewing guidelines given to paramedics and ambulance staff after the study cast doubt on how people have been treated for decades.

A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body.

The three-year Governmentfunded trial among 8,000 patients whose heart had stopped, which involved five of the 12 ambulance trusts in England and Wales, found using adrenaline increased survival by less than 1 per cent. But 30 per cent of those survivors were left with brain damage – nearly twice as many as the 19 per cent who suffered brain damage and had not been given adrenaline.