1. The impact of a high-quality basic life support police-based first responder system on outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
- Author
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Thomas Uray, Michael Poppe, Thomas Hamp, Jakob Eichelter, Markus Keferboeck, Patrick Sulzgruber, Sebastian Schnaubelt, Elisabeth Lobmeyr, A. Nuernberger, Sebastian Zeiner, David Weidenauer, Markus Winnisch, Mario Krammel, and Philip Datler
- Subjects
Male ,Resuscitation ,Emergency Medical Services ,Critical Care and Emergency Medicine ,Social Sciences ,Criminology ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Chi Square Tests ,Geographical locations ,0302 clinical medicine ,Mathematical and Statistical Techniques ,Sociology ,External defibrillators ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Cardiac Arrest ,Medicine ,Geographic Areas ,Multidisciplinary ,Geography ,Statistics ,Middle Aged ,Police ,Europe ,Professions ,Data Acquisition ,Austria ,Physical Sciences ,Regression Analysis ,Female ,Research Article ,Urban Areas ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Computer and Information Sciences ,Science ,Electric Countershock ,Cardiology ,Return of spontaneous circulation ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Out of hospital cardiac arrest ,03 medical and health sciences ,First responder ,Chi-square test ,Humans ,European Union ,Statistical Methods ,Statistical Hypothesis Testing ,Aged ,business.industry ,Emergency Responders ,Basic life support ,030208 emergency & critical care medicine ,Patient survival ,Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ,Emergency medicine ,People and Places ,Earth Sciences ,Population Groupings ,business ,Life Support Systems ,Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest ,Mathematics ,Defibrillators - Abstract
Background Laypersons’ efforts to initiate basic life support (BLS) in witnessed Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) remain comparably low within western society. Therefore, in order to shorten no-flow times in cardiac arrest, several police-based first responder systems equipped with automated external defibrillators (Pol-AED) were established in urban areas, which subsequently allow early BLS and AED administration by police officers. However, data on the quality of BLS and AED use in such a system and its impact on patient outcome remain scarce and inconclusive. Methods A total of 85 Pol-AED cases were randomly assigned to a gender, age and first rhythm matched non-Pol-AED control group (n = 170) in a 1:2 ratio. Data on quality of BLS were extracted via trans-thoracic impedance tracings of used AED devices. Results Comparing Pol-AED cases and the control group, we observed a similar compression rate per minute (p = 0.677) and compression ratio (p = 0.651), mirroring an overall high quality of BLS administered by police officers. Time to the first shock was significantly shorter in Pol-AED cases (6 minutes [IQR: 2–10] vs. 12 minutes [IQR: 8–17]; p
- Published
- 2019