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Public-access AEDs improve neurologically intact survival after cardiac arrest

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 8, page 667 (2011)Cite this article

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On-site, public-access, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) more than double the chance of neurologically intact survival after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, compared with patients who do not receive AED treatment. This finding comes from a real-world, population-based study in the North Holland province of the Netherlands, which has been published in Circulation.

The research follows on from a controlled clinical trial between 2000 and 2002 by the Amsterdam Resuscitation Study (ARREST) group, in which the random allocation of AEDs to first responders (for example, firefighters and policemen) was investigated. Since then, public-access AEDs have been placed in Amsterdam airport and various other public locations; however, AED placement is uncontrolled and training of lay responders is by local initiative. During the study period, the North Holland province had a population of 2.4 million inhabitants, 67 AEDs available for dispatch with first responders, and 1,583 on-site AEDs (generally accompanied by trained lay rescuers). Dr. Jocelyn Berdowski from the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam “was curious to see how well responders did without the structure of a research program, [and] to measure the effectiveness of both dispatched and on-site AEDs by quantifying how long it takes from the emergency call before a patient receives a shock.”

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Berdowski, J. et al. Impact of onsite or dispatched automated external defibrillator use on survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Circulation doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.015545

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  1. Gregory B. Lim
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Lim, G. Public-access AEDs improve neurologically intact survival after cardiac arrest. Nat Rev Cardiol 8, 667 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2011.165

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2011.165

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