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Cardiac (non-arrest)

Aortic emergencies: HR/BP drugs in transport

Medical Management of Aortic Emergencies in Critical Care Transport
Prehospital Emergency Care · Added 22 September 2026

Cohort of 1,530 aortic emergencies in US critical care transport — esmolol, labetalol and nicardipine strategies hit HR/BP targets at similar rates, with esmolol alone showing the highest hypotension incidence (9.3%) and labetalol alone the lowest (2.1%)

Study type

Cohort

Design

Retrospective cohort of US critical care transport encounters

Participants

1,530 adults with aortic emergencies

Main finding

All drug strategies achieved target HR/SBP similarly; hypotension lowest with labetalol alone (2.1%) and highest with esmolol (9.3%); esmolol/nicardipine combination had lowest tachycardia (11.0%)

Caveat

Retrospective design; US critical care transport setting not directly applicable to Australian paramedic practice

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Weigh the hypotension risks of different heart rate and blood pressure control strategies in suspected aortic emergencies.

More

• Topic: Cardiac (non-arrest)
• Daily scan: 22 September 2026

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