Tsai MS, et al. - In this study, researchers analyzed data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to investigate the ramifications of steroid use during post-arrest care. They evaluated adult nontraumatic cardiac arrest patients in the emergency department who survived to admission. Participants were followed-up for 1 year. Depending on whether steroid was used during hospitalization, researchers divided participants into one of two groups: the steroid and nonsteroid groups. Propensity score matching resulted in 5,445 patients in each group. During hospitalization, death was reported in 4,119 patients in the steroid group vs 4,403 in the nonsteroid group. The steroid group vs the nonsteroid group had a markedly lower mortality rate at 1 year. Overall, the investigators noted an association between steroid use during hospitalization and survival to discharge, irrespective of age, sex, underlying diseases (diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma), shockable rhythm, and steroid use prior to cardiac arrest.