Glucose-Insulin-Potassium Use in Acute Myocardial Infarction

As my mentor Dr William Dock said, medical practice is like a pendulum: it swings back and forth every 20 to 30 years. Sodi-Pallares et al 1 in 1962 introduced the glucose-insulinpotassium infusion (GIK) for treatment of acute myocardial infarction. It was also called the "polarizing solution," 2 but little did they know that this solution indeed polarized the cardiologists at that time to "believers" and "nonbelievers." Soon the GIK treatment for acute myocardial infarction fell into disrepute due to doubts and conflicting data about its efficacy; its use was subsequently abandoned.