EMS A to Z: Narcan in Cardiac Arrest

Show Notes:

From your hosts, Dr. Josh Gaither, Dr. Amber Rice, and Dr. Rachel Munn

Narcan is a competitive opiate receptor antagonist, meaning that it competes with opiate drugs (fentanyl, morphine, heroin) to bind to those receptors and essentially kicks them off.

Narcan is indicated for respiratory depression thought to be caused by an opiate.

Narcan doesn’t help in cardiac arrest, because the problem – or cause of the arrest – is usually hypoxia, which requires ventilation to correct.

The most important aspects of cardiac arrest care due to an opiate overdose are: good ventilations, good CPR, shocking shockable rhythms, and administering epinephrine early in non-shockable rhythms.