United States: Each minute wasted waiting for a first shock from defibrillators reduces the chances of survival when one is suffering from a cardiac arrest by 6%, according to a Netherlands research, as reported by HealthDay.
First-Shock Timing’s Impact on Survival
“Our findings demonstrate that each minute of delay in administering the first shock has a significant effect,” the study’s first author, Remy Stieglis of the Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC).
“If the first shock was given within six minutes, it was possible in 93% of the cases to stop the heart rhythm disorder ventricular fibrillation (VF)-which causes the cardiac arrest,” he explained in a hospital news release. “If the initial shock was delayed and was only given after more than 16 minutes, for example, this percentage dropped to 75%.”
Study Data and Insights
Steiglis’ group used data from ongoing research on cardiac resuscitation in North Holland. The material was based on 3,723 patients who had had a cardiac arrest outside the hospital and in the presence of witnesses.
This means that getting a defibrillator on the scene is rather important in saving lives in these cases.
“After a successful shock [defibrillation], VF is terminated and changes to a normal heart rhythm or a completely absent heart rhythm (asystole),” said study co-author Christian van der Werf, a cardiologist and researcher at Amsterdam UMC.
“In our study, a shorter delay to the first shock also led more often to a normal heart rhythm of your own,” he added.
However, patients aren’t always in the clear because “after a successful shock, VF may reoccur, requiring another shock,” van der Warf added. “This also decreased with time to first shock, indicating that the opportunity for this was reduced with shorter time to first shock.”
Efforts to Improve Response Time
Presently, authorities, in an effort to increase time-to-first-shock in The Netherlands, make the public AEDs easily accessible and educate first responders such as the police and firefighters on their use of AEDs.
The goal: First, to respond to the people with cardiac arrest within 6 minutes and administer a potentially saving defibrillator shock, as reported by HealthDay.
Challenges Remain
Still, “in 3 out of 4 resuscitations in our study, we did not reach those six minutes,” pointed out Hans van Schuppen, the anaesthesiologist and the leader of the current resuscitation study.
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