Automatic external defibrillators: changing the way we manage ventricular fibrillation
Why the study?
Does equipping first-responders with AEDs improve survival to hospital discharge in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation?
Population
Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation
Comparison
First-responders equipped with automatic… vs Control group
Design
Meta-analysis
Follow-up
to hospital discharge
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Supports first-responder AED deployment for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; reinforces survival benefit in Level 1 meta-analysis.
Structured PICO
Does equipping first-responders with AEDs improve survival to hospital discharge in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation?
P
Population
Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation (6 studies included in meta-analysis)
I
Intervention
First-responders equipped with automatic external defibrillators (AEDs)
C
Comparator
Control group (standard care without AED-equipped first responders)
O
Outcome
Survival to hospital dischargehard clinical
Equipping first-responders with AEDs significantly improves survival to hospital discharge for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation.
Limitations
- Most of the included studies lacked sufficient power to draw definitive conclusions
Cite This Study
Smith et al. (2000) studied this question.