Surgeons' attitudes to intraoperative death: questionnaire survey.

if lives were saved on only 10% of these occasions, then each would have been saved at a drug cost of £330-670. The range of doses given raises the possibility that naloxone was being titrated to effect resuscitation without provoking withdrawal. If so, recovery needs monitoring to avoid subsequent relapse into overdose. Some casualty departments and ambulance services now recommend giving naloxone intramuscularly or subcutaneously rather than intravenously because it can be given more quickly and results in less violent recovery. The same advice may apply to administration by peers. In future, family members may be trained to give emergency naloxone, for whom nonintravenous administration would be more realistic. Early reports are encouraging. No adverse effects have been reported, and 10% of distributed naloxone has saved lives. A study of the wider distribution of take home naloxone is now required.