Widespread use of automated external defibrillators throughout
Japan more than doubled the percentage of people who survived heart
attacks, researchers reported.
The finding reinforces the growing evidence that the devices, which
allow untrained people to deliver shocks to a stopped heart, can
save lives.
It "should encourage other countries or communities to promote
public-access defibrillation programs," the research team, led by
Dr Tetsuhisa Kitamura of the Kyoto University Health Service,
reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In July 2004, Japan made it legal for any of its 127 million
citizens to use an automated external defibrillator, or AED.
During the study, which looked at 300,000 heart attacks from
2005 to 2007, the number of defibrillators available to the public
rose from 9,906 to 88,265.
An electrical shock from a defibrillator can restore the heart's
normal rhythm and reverse cardiac arrest.
AEDs are a portable version of the devices that automatically
analyze the heart's rhythm and, if needed, instruct the user to
deliver a shock.
The researchers found that widespread availability of the
defibrillators cut the time it took to shock a stopped heart to 2.2
minutes from 3.7 minutes.
One month after a cardiac arrest, 31.6% of the patients were alive
with only minimal impairment if a public AED unit was used,
compared to 14.4% if one was not.
About four percent of the heart attack victims were lucky enough to
have a bystander respond and use an AED.
"We also found that increasing the number of public-access AEDs per
square kilometre of inhabited area was strongly associated with
shortening the time to the administration of a first shock and in
increasing the number of patients who survived with minimal
neurologic impairment after receiving a shock," the researchers
wrote.
The best place to put AEDs is a matter for debate.
Airports or casinos seem to be good locations and homes do not,
they said, citing other studies.
One quarter of the Japanese units are in schools, 19% are in
medical or nursing facilities, and 16% are in workplaces.
AEDs typically cost between $1,500 and $2,000.
