Semi-automatic external defibrillation.
Malignant arrhythmia, which is responsible for most of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, is ventricular fibrillation (VF). The best treatment of VF is a controlled electric shock on the chest administered in a short delay. The emergency medical technicians (EMTs) qualified to carry out this treatment in Belgium and in districts often succeed in arriving on the spot 8 minutes earlier than the people of the Service Mobile d'Urgence et de Réanimation (SMUR). The delegation of defibrillation to ambulance crew members however implies a specific teaching, training and a medical control. The Brussels experience shows that semi-automatic external defibrillation by EMT-Ds (SAED) is feasible when criteria for applying SAED in the pre-hospital phase are applicable.
Mols
P
P
Emergency Service, Free University of Brussels, Saint-Pierre University Hospital, Belgium.
Clevenbergh
P
P
Henry
B
B
Decroly
M
M
Langen
C
C
Beaucarne
E
E
Bruyninx
J
J
Robert
P
P
Labruyère
J P
JP
Flamand
J P
JP
D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*