Funding outcome

Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) is currently the only vasopressor (a type of drug) recommended during newborn resuscitation (successfully bringing back a person's heart rate and blood flow). Unfortunately, a lot of data about epinephrine remains unknown. Additionally, we are unable to currently predict which newborns are at risk of requiring resuscitative efforts at birth. Therefore, the collection of large, high-quality human data as to the effectiveness of epinephrine during resuscitation has been prevented. Since there is a lack of neonatal data, guidelines use data from adult/pediatric animal studies. Unfortunately, that data may not be completely applicable to newborns. Therefore, newborn animal studies are needed to determine the optimal vasopressor therapy during newborn resuscitation before human trials can be conducted. Adult and pediatric studies have suggested that vasopressin (a type of vasopressor) is more effective than epinephrine if the cardiac arrest rhythm is asystolic, also known as 'flatline'. Asystole is one of the main cardiac arrest rhythms in newborns. This research project aims to determine what dosage of vasopressin is best for newborn resuscitation, as well as what route of administration. It is hypothesized that vasopressin compared to epinephrine will decrease time to resuscitation, as well as increase short- and long-term survival in asystolic newborn piglets.