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Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation (CPR) Statistics
There
are no reliable national statistics on CPR because no single agency collects
information about how many people get CPR, how many don't get it who need it,
how many people are trained, etc. Many studies have examined CPR in specific
communities. While they show varying rates of success, all are consistent in
showing benefits from early CPR.
The following statements are fair generalizations:
Right now early CPR and rapid defibrillation (de-fib"rih-LA'shun) combined
with early advanced care can result in high long-term survival rates for
witnessed ventricular fibrillation (ven-TRIK'u-ler fib"rih-LA'shun).
The value of early CPR by bystanders is that it can buy time by prolonging life
during ventricular fibrillation. Early bystander CPR is less helpful if EMS
personnel equipped with a defibrillator arrive later than 8-12 minutes after the
collapse.
Sudden cardiac death (S.C.D.)
Sudden
cardiac death from coronary heart disease occurs over 600 times per day in the
United States.
Sudden cardiac death in people less than 21 years old is one-tenth as common as
in adults, occurring in only 1 to 2 per 100,000 children per year.
A review of published studies that report initial heart rhythms during cardiac
arrest in children indicates that the majority (40-90 percent) have asystole (a-SIS'to-le)
or pulseless electrical activity when first evaluated. However, ventricular
fibrillation (ven-TRIK'u-ler fib"rih-LA'shun) or ventricular tachycardia (ven-TRIK'u-ler
tak"eh-KAR'de-ah) is found in up to 23 percent.
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
AED programs equip conventional ambulances with automated external
defibrillators (de-FIB'rih-la-torz). Only an estimated 30 percent of emergency
medical systems (E.M.S.) in the United States have put AED programs in place
According to a recent study, AEDs now in use are 90 percent sensitive for
ventricular fibrillation (ven-TRIK'u-ler fib"rih-LA'shun) and 90-95 percent
specific for other heart rhythms.
The first out-of-hospital defibrillation device weighed 110 pounds; today they
weigh less than 10 pounds.
Increased survival with AEDs
In cities where CPR training is widespread and EMS response is rapid, the
survival rate increased from 7 percent to 26 percent when AEDs were available to
first responders.
In cities where defibrillation is provided within 5 to 7 minutes, the survival
rate from cardiac arrest is as high as 49 percent.
In cities in which EMS response times are prolonged because of traffic
congestion and high-rise buildings (and in which bystander CPR is infrequent),
longer-term survival outcome is 1-2 percent.
A Rochester, Minnesota, study showed remarkable survival rates when police
vehicles were equipped with automated external defibrillators. Twenty-one of 44
persons with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were long-time survivors. Of these
44 victims, 14 had initial defibrillation by the police force. Of these 14, 10
survived and were discharged. The overall survival rate of 21 of 44 victims can
be compared with the survival rate in New York, where 26 of 2,329 victims
survived.
In one case, AEDs were mounted 1 minute apart in plain view at Chicago's O'Hare
and Midway airports in June 1999. In the first 10 months, 14 cardiac arrests
occurred with 12 of the 14 victims in ventricular fibrillation. Nine of the 14
victims (64 percent) were revived with an AED and had no brain damage.
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