Adult post-cardiac arrest interventions: An overview of randomized clinical trials.

AIM:To provide an overview of published and registered trials related to post-cardiac arrest interventions. DATA SOURCE:We searched PubMed and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform for randomized clinical trials in adults specifically addressing a post-cardiac arrest intervention. RESULTS:We identified 65 manuscripts reporting randomized clinical trials. The majority of the trials were published within the last 10 years and the sample sizes were generally low with a median of 90 participants (quartiles: 49, 262; range: 9, 1359). The majority of the trials were conducted in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (79%), while only 6% were conducted specifically in in-hospital cardiac arrest and 15% included both in- and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. We identified 48 registered trials online. The median target sample size is 100 participants (quartiles: 60, 400; range: 20, 1900). The majority of trials are enrolling patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (71%) while 6% specifically focuses on in-hospital cardiac arrest. CONCLUSION:This review provides an overview of published and registered trials addressing post-cardiac arrest interventions. We believe this information will be relevant to guide future research.