Summary: Here it is, the 1st EMCrit podcast.It's on the topic of Sympathetic Crashing Acute Pulmonary Edema (SCAPE).To boil it down to 10 seconds:Start patient on Non-invasive ventilation with a PEEP of 6-8; quickly titrate to a PEEP of 10-12. Start the patient on a nitroglycerin drip. Administer a loading dose of 4oo mcg/min for 2 minutes (120 ml/hour on the pump for 2 minutes with the standard nitro concentration of 200 mcg/ml.) Then drop the dose to 100 mcg/min and titrate it up from there as needed.By 10 minutes, your patient should be out of the water.See crashingpatient.com for the references. Here is some info from a handout from a lecture I gave on the topic: High Dose Nitroglycerin Homeopathic nitroglycerin does not work so well Start at 50-100 mcg/min, you can rapidly titrate to 200-400 mcg/min.You must stand at the bedside to use these doses. Need >120 mcg/min to get sig decreased Pulm Cap Wedge Pressure (Am J Cardio 2004;93:237) But even this strategy is not as effective as the … Nitro Bolus First Can give 400-800 mcg over 1-2 minutes = 400 mcg/min for 1-2 minutes. (Annals EM 1997, 30:382) How to do it Standard nitro mix is 200 mcg/ml. VERIFY YOUR HOSPITAL’S MIX BEFORE USING THESE RECS In order to give the 400 mcg/min for 2 minutes, set the pump to Rate: 120 cc/hr Volume to be Infused: 4 ml (This will deliver 400 mcg/min for 2 minutes and then stop)OrDraw up 4 ml of the nitro and 6 ml of NS and give over 2 minutesAfter the bolus, I drop the drip to 100 mcg/min and titrate up from there to effect When the patient gets better, you need to sharply decrease this drip rate Some folks have gone even further High dose nitroglycerin for severe decompensated heart failure—2 mg at a time (Ann Emerg Med 2007;50:144) Cotter gave isosorbide 3 mg q 5 minutes with good results in his study. This is equivalent to nitro 600 mcg/min. (Lancet 1998 351:9100, 389-393) Update 6-10-12 Piyush Mallick did an amazing study on nitro-bolus to avert intubation
