Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Dispatcher assistance and automated external defibrillator performance among elders.
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) provide an opportunity to improve survival in out-of-hospital, ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest by enabling laypersons not trained in rhythm recognition to deliver lifesaving therapy. The potential role of emergency dispatchers in the layperson use of AEDs is uncertain. This study was performed to examine whether dispatcher telephone assistance affected AED skill performance during a simulated VF cardiac arrest among a cohort of older adults. The hypothesis was that dispatcher assistance would increase the proportion who were able to correctly deliver a shock, but might require additional time. ⋯ Among older laypersons previously trained in AED operation, dispatcher assistance may increase the proportion who can successfully deliver a shock during a VF cardiac arrest.