Key result
Automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) deployed in public access sites and by first responders offer a faster response strategy to reduce the burden of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death.
Why the study?
Does the deployment of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) improve survival rates in victims of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death compared to conventional EMS alone?
Does the deployment of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) improve survival rates in victims of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death compared to conventional EMS alone?
Deployment of AEDs in public spaces and by first responders, alongside conventional EMS, offers hope for reducing the burden of sudden cardiac death.
Approaches to the prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) include strategies designed to attack the problem from the multiple perspectives of primary prevention of the underlying diseases, prophylactic treatment of high-risk individuals with identified diseases, and responses to cardiac arrest victims in the community. The latter strategy began with conventional fire department-based emergency rescue systems (emergency medical services [EMS]) that originated in the early 1970s. Although such systems were innovative and impressive at the time, they are limited by less-than-optimal response times that translate to low survival rates. Newer strategies, designed to respond faster, include a variety of methods, including ambulance- and police-based automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), deployment of AEDs in settings in which crowds accumulate and designated rescuers are available, and more general public access sites. The value of conventional EMS systems remains because of their ability to provide advanced life support as part of a dual-response system. These approaches, in conjunction with better primary and secondary prevention strategies, offer the hope of reducing the SCD burden.
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Myerburg et al. (2003) conducted a review in Sudden cardiac death (SCD). Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) was evaluated. Automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) deployed in public access sites and by first responders offer a faster response strategy to reduce the burden of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death.
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