Why is this important?

People who do not have adrenal insufficiencies naturally produce up to ten times the normal amount of cortisol, which is vital to the maintenance of blood pressure and heart muscle tone, as well as sugar and salt balance, during times of physical stress. When illness or injury occurs in adrenally insufficient individuals, however, an immediate additional dose of glucocorticoids (hydrocortisone) is necessary to avert adrenal crisis. Delay in administration of these medications can lead to shock, heart failure and death.

Individuals affected by CAH are not always in the immediate care of someone trained in or comfortable with administration of a hydrocortisone injection. For example: a child at school when there is no school nurse, an adult affected by CAH living alone, an automobile accident in which the caregiver is incapacitated, a family on holiday outside of their “home” support network. Thus, it is important to be able to rely on EMS during an adrenal crisis.