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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Would a Home Defibrillator Increase Survival Rate? In public places, if a person suffering sudden cardiac arrest does not receive immediate treatment with an automated external defibrillator (AED) or a bystander who knows cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may die within minutes. Statistics showed that AEDs have helped many people survive sudden cardiac arrest. It is nowadays commonly reported that doctor used one of those publicly available defibrillators to revive lives in public place. Report showed that about 80 per cent of sudden cardiac arrests occur at home, so would a defibrillator at home increase the survival rate? The answer may just disappoint many! Not at all! A recent study by researchers from the Seattle Institute of Cardiac Research revealed that the chance of saving life of a heart attack victim against sudden cardiac arrest by a defibrillator at home alone may not be better than by a person with good CPR training. The findings were published on April 1, in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study, each of the 7,001 people who are at moderate risk of sudden cardiac arrest had a spouse or home companion willing and able to perform CPR and use an AED. These subjects were divided into 2 groups: one group was asked to call an ambulance and perform CPR, and the other group was told to use the defibrillator first and then call for emergency help.
Within the 3 years of observation, only 63 out of the 123 cardiac arrests were witnessed, and a defibrillator was used in just 32 victims. The defibrillator can assess a patient's rhythm, and it called for a shock to be delivered in just 14 patients. Only 4 of these patients survived long enough to be discharged from the hospital. The researchers admitted that there was no mortality benefit. Meanwhile, they also found that the rate of cardiac arrests happening at home was lower than expected, and sadly many of these just happened when the victim was alone. They pointed out that the spouses and companions of the patients in the control group had been well educated in how to deal with a heart attack event. This is something that could have improved chance of survival in the group without an AED. During the study, some of the AEDs used were also borrowed by the neighbors to revive their family member, and 2 out of the 7 who suffered cardiac arrest did survive. In other words, whenever the devices were used, they worked pretty well. Home defibrillators are not cheap. Devices that can be used at home cost between US$1,200 and US$2,000. Moreover, most AEDs cannot be purchased by home users without a prescription from the doctors. In other word, not everyone is able and can afford to get one at home. Even if they could, the chance of survival does not significantly increase, as seen in the study. Therefore, instead of relying on the devices at home, perhaps people should place future efforts on educating, modifying risk factors and finding other useful methods for heart disease prevention.
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