Postdefibrillation idioventricular rhythm--a salvageable condition.

While patients who present with a pulseless idioventricular rhythm have a dismal prognosis, such a rhythm following electrical defibrillation from ventricular fibrillation (VF) may have an entirely different clinical significance. By reviewing the cases of 100 consecutive patients with prehospital ventricular fibrillation, we found the following: Subsequent development of field pulses, survival to hospital admission and hospital discharge in 49 patients who initially had pulseless idioventricular rhythm following defibrillation were statistically significantly worse (P<.05) than for 20 patients successfully defibrillated into any other organized rhythm. They were statistically significantly better, however, than for 25 patients who failed to achieve any organized rhythm in the field. Outcomes were statistically no different in 40 patients who received standard advanced cardiac life support drug therapy for pulseless idioventricular rhythm after defibrillation than in 9 patients who spontaneously progressed to another rhythm before drug therapy could be given. These findings suggest that pulseless idioventricular rhythm may be a transient recovery rhythm following defibrillation from prehospital VF, that it can in this circumstance be associated with a good outcome in a reasonable number of patients and that a short trial of cardiopulmonary resuscitation only, without immediate drug therapy, may be appropriate in these patients.