Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine

Introduction: Cardiac arrest in the setting of cocaine use portends high morbidity and mortality secondary to its powerful sodium channel blockade effects. Intravenous (IV) lipid emulsion has long been used as a rescue therapy in lipophilic toxicities.

Case Report: We report a case in which IV lipid emulsion was used to successfully stabilize a patient who suffered cocaine-associated, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Conclusion: Intravenous lipid emulsion was used in the successful resuscitation of a cocaine overdose and could be considered for use in patients with cocaine-associated cardiac arrest.