Letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor

In response to the letter from Denise S. Schwartz, DVM, MS, PhD, while we appreciate the desire to have tested the benefits and safety of every medication used in the practice of feline medicine, we do not always have such information. Such is the case with amiodarone. We are not alone in our recommendations that it MAY be tried during cardiopulmonary resuscitation because the alternative is often death. If everything else has been attempted, and the patient is still exhibiting a nonresponsive life‐threatening arrhythmia, we and others consider amiodarone as an OPTION.

The American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC) and Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society (VECCS) developed the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) to provide standardized specific, evidence‐based guidelines on CPR which were published in the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in June 2012. These articles provide guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation based upon research and data rather than opinions, similar to those used in human medicine from the International Resuscitation Council CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Guidelines from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR).

The best defense of the recommendation for amiodarone is that these JVECC articles,1 and also the printed, laminated posters sold by the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society also recommend amiodarone in the same instances that are described in this article, published several years earlier. It is simply something to try, since the alternative is death.