The electronic databases, Medline and CINAHL, were searched using keywords including; “first responder”, “lay responder”, “defibrillation” and “cardiac arrest”. The reference lists of retrieved articles and the Internet were also searched. Articles were included in the review if they reported primary data, in the English language, which described the effect of a lay responder defibrillation program on survival to hospital discharge from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in adults.
Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. The small number of published studies, heterogeneity of study populations and study outcome methods prohibited formal meta-analysis. Therefore, narrative analysis was undertaken. Studies included in this report provided inconsistent findings in relation to survival to hospital discharge following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Although there are limited data, the role of the lay responder appears promising in improving the outcome from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest following early defibrillation. Despite the inherent methodological difficulties in studying this population, future research should address outcomes related to morbidity, mortality and cost-effectiveness.
Purchase PDF (142 K)  coverDate=03%2F31%2F1998&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=article&_cdi=4885&_sort=v&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=289&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=0cb8ba1e443dba8f93ef25354b144145">Theoretical calculation of maximum attainable benefit of public access defibrillation in BelgiumResuscitation, Volume 36, Issue 3, March 1998, Pages 161-163 P. Martens, P. Calle, O. Vanhaute and the Belgian Cardio Pulmonary Cerebral Resuscitation Study Group Abstract Objective: Assuming that a lay person performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) will also use an automatic external defibrillator (AED) wherever available, we tried to estimate the maximal attainable benefit of public access defibrillation in some centres in Belgium. Methods: We analysed retrospectively the data from the Belgian Cardio Pulmonary Cerebral Resuscitation Registry collected between 1991 and June 1996. The majority of these emergency medical service (EMS) systems are two-tiered with an early defibrillation program for the first tier and a physician-staffed second tier. Results: The data show that, in 5543 registered cases, there were 1001 (18%) adults with non-traumatic ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT) as the first monitored rhythm. In this subgroup there were 419 (42%) cases who had lay CPR. The duration of lay CPR before the first defibrillation either by the first or the second tier is known in 357 cases. This duration was more than 5 min and 10 min, in 80%and 53%of the cases, respectively. The median (Q1, Q3) lay CPR duration was 11 (7, 15) min. Survival to hospital discharge in this subgroup was achieved in 80/357 (22%) patients. Using Weaver's linear model for survival after witnessed VF/VT, an estimated increase of more than 30%in survival rate was calculated. Conclusion: It is concluded that in our EMS system, laymen reach a substantial number of VF/VT victims many minutes before the arrival of the professional EMS teams. Therefore, a substantial increase in the number of survivors could be expected if lay responders were prepared to use an AED. coverDate=03%2F31%2F1998&_sk=999639996&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkzS&md5=a05a18fee800d9499239e636f638aa7b&ie=/sdarticle.pdf"> Purchase PDF (60 K) |
 | View More Related Articles |
| View Record in Scopus |
doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2007.11.012 
Public Access Defibrillation: Psychological consequences in responderscoverDate=05%2F31%2F2008&_rdoc=8&_fmt=full&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%234885%232008%23999229997%23684416%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=4885&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=23&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1d511c5e7f545f37fbd1cd9505c07837#afn1">
