Certified Emergency Nurse Practice Test 2025 – Complete Exam Prep

The method used to stabilize the cardiac membrane in cases of hyperkalemia is through the administration of calcium chloride. Hyperkalemia can lead to significant cardiac complications, such as arrhythmias, due to increased potassium levels affecting myocardial excitability. Calcium acts as a stabilizer for the myocardial cell membranes, counteracting the effects of elevated potassium and reducing the risk of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.

When calcium chloride is administered, it helps to restore the threshold potential of the cardiac cells, mitigating the risks associated with hyperpolarization caused by elevated potassium levels. This is crucial in an emergency setting, as stabilization of the cardiac membrane can buy time for further interventions, such as insulin administration or dialysis, to actually lower serum potassium levels.

While options like insulin can help shift potassium back into cells and dialysis can remove excess potassium from the bloodstream, these measures do not directly stabilize the cardiac membrane in the immediate sense as calcium chloride does. Therefore, calcium chloride is the preferred method for immediate stabilization of the myocardial electrical activity in hyperkalemia.