Distributing portable defibrillators to restart a quivering heart -- and training the public to use them -- can double the survival rate for people who have collapsed from cardiac arrest, according to a massive North American study.
Meanwhile, a second study concluded that rescue workers who try to save cardiac arrest patients by inserting a breathing tube and giving drugs may be wasting their time.
The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine provide new impetus for making the 10-pound defibrillators widely available in health clubs, shopping malls and other places where lots of people go.
If such a program were adopted nationally, “approximately 2,000 to 4,000 additional lives would be saved each year in the United States,” said the research team, led by Alfred Hallstrom of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Simple enough for a sixth grader
Even when bystanders are available to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, only 2 to 5 percent of patients recover well enough to be released from the hospital. Up to 450,000 people die from cardiac arrest in the United States each year.
But portable defibrillators, which shock the heart into a normal rhythm, could help. The newest devices use spoken commands and are simple enough for a sixth grader to use with minimal training.
The new study, which used 19,376 volunteers at 933 locations in 24 communities in North America, trained everybody in CPR techniques but supplied 1,600 defibrillators and additional training to half the facilities.
Researchers found that 23 percent of the 128 patients treated with the defibrillators recovered enough to be released from the hospital, against 14 percent of the 107 people who only received CPR.
In a companion study, a team led by Ian Stiell of the University of Ottawa found that aggressive treatment with drugs and a breathing tube, also known as advanced life support, did little to help victims of cardiac arrest.
The Stiell group looked at survival rates in 17 cities throughout Ontario before and after advanced life support programs were instituted. They found that 5,638 patients whose hearts stopped had a survival rate of 5 percent before the new program was implemented, and 5.1 percent afterward.
Giving cardiac arrest victims quick access to CPR and defibrillators should become a priority for emergency medical systems, they said.
