The 2017 NEJM study, ALPS, compared amiodarone, lidocaine, and placebo for refractory shockable rhythms in adults with out of hospital cardiac arrest. They found no significant difference in survival to hospital discharge or functional survival between any of the arms. If that study has left you confused, you’re not alone. 

And you’re in luck. Tanner Smida joins us again to discuss his latest paper using something called target trial emulation to assess the difference in ROSC and survival to discharge between amiodarone and lidocaine. This is a great discussion of his paper, the methodology, and how we can put his results into the context of ALPS.

Citations:

1.Smida T, Crowe R, Price BS, Scheidler J, Martin PS, Shukis M, Bardes J: A retrospective ‘target trial emulation’ comparing amiodarone and lidocaine for adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation. Resuscitation. 2025;March;208:110515.

2. Kudenchuk PJ, Brown SP, Daya M, Rea T, Nichol G, Morrison LJ, Leroux B, Vaillancourt C, Wittwer L, Callaway CW, et al.: Amiodarone, Lidocaine, or Placebo in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. N Engl J Med. 2016;May 5;374(18):1711–22.

3.Hernán MA, Robins JM: Using Big Data to Emulate a Target Trial When a Randomized Trial Is Not Available: Table 1. Am J Epidemiol. 2016;April 15;183(8):758–64.