Comparative study of nifekalant versus amiodarone for shock-resistant ventricular fibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients.

Background: In Japan, intravenous nifekalant (NIF) was often used for direct current cardioversion-resistant ventricular fibrillation (VF), until the use of intravenous amiodarone (AMD) was approved in 2007. The defibrillatory efficacy of NIF and AMD has thus far not been compared for resuscitation.

Methods And Results: Between August 2007 and April 2009, 403 consecutive out-of-hospital patients with cardiopulmonary arrest were transferred to the Emergency Medical Service of Tokai University.

A case of traumatic cardiac tamponade showing sudden spontaneous disappearance of the pericardial fluid.

Traumatic cardiac tamponade must be treated by pericardial drainage as soon as possible. We recently encountered a rare case of traumatic cardiac tamponade in which the pericardial fluid disappeared spontaneously immediately before the planned drainage. This case is reported in this paper.