Public access defibrillation

This study showed that trained lay persons can use AEDs safely and effectively. Nationwide dissemination of public access AEDs in Japan was reported in 2010 [1]. 312,319 adults who had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were included in the study. 12,631 of these patients had ventricular fibrillation and cardiac origin witnessed cardiac arrest. 462 were administered shocks by lay persons with public access AEDs. Though this gave an average percentage of 3.7%, the percentage increased from 1.2% to 6.2% as the number of public access AEDs increased. 14.4% of those with witness cardiac origin cardiac arrest were alive at 1 month with minimal neurological deficit. Among those who received shocks from public access AEDs, 31.6% were alive at 1 month with minimal neurological deficit. The number of AEDs were 4 or more per square kilometer of inhabited area towards the end of the study period, while it was less than 1 initially. Another study published in 2019 reported on 1,299,784 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from a prospective nationwide Japanese registry [3]. There were 28,019 patients with witnessed cardiac arrest and shockable heart rhythm who had received bystander CPR. Proportion of patients with a favourable neurological outcome was significantly higher in those who received public access defibrillation than those who did not. 30 day survival was also higher in those who received public access defibrillation. These studies support the wide dissemination of public ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs