title: Community-based automated external defibrillator only resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Speed is the cornerstone of rescue for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. As a consequence, community participation programs have been initiated to decrease response times. Even in the very best of these programs, however, short-term survival rates hover around 10% and long-term survival rates are half that. In most locales, survival is far worse. In Piacenza, Italy, responders have been trained for more than a decade to use publicly available automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and eschew the performance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It is known locally as "Progetto Vita."
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2001 to 2014, we prospectively collected outcome data on all Progetto Vita-treated patients and all 3271 standard emergency medical services (EMS) patients. Progetto Vita rescuers simply accessed a public AED, turned it on, and only followed its instructions. Progetto Vita rescuers did not do CPR of any sort. If EMS arrived prior to initiation or even completion of the Progetto Vita protocol, EMS-supplanted Progetto Vita efforts and patients were not included in the Progetto Vita cohort. Follow-up was collected by each responder's data files, medical record review, and use of the Italian system death index. All cardiac arrest patients' death status was validated in 100% of patients through August 1, 2014.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Survival to hospital discharge occurred in 39 (41.4%) of the 95 patients treated by Progetto Vita and in 193 (5.9%) of the 3271 EMS patients. At 13-year follow-up, the Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival were 31.8% when AEDs only were used and 2.4% for standard EMS/CPR response. Estimates of survival are significantly better for Progetto Vita AED-only therapy when survival was stratified by time to respond, gender, location of cardiac arrest, and shockable rhythm. Relative to the 95 EMS patients with the fastest response times, Progetto Vita intervention was associated with a more than 2-fold increased rate of survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first demonstration of excellent long-term survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by promoting speed and ease of lay AED response without CPR.
authors: Cardiology and Arrhythmology Clinic, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Capucci
authors: Cardiology Department, Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital, Piacenza, Italy.
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Aschieri
authors: Cardiology and Arrhythmology Clinic, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy.
authors: Federico
authors: F
authors: Guerra
authors: Cardiology Department, Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital, Piacenza, Italy.
authors: Valentina
authors: V
authors: Pelizzoni
authors: Emergency Department, Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital, Piacenza, Italy.
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Nani
authors: Cardiology Department, Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital, Piacenza, Italy.
authors: Giovanni Quinto
authors: GQ
authors: Villani
authors: Seattle Institute for Cardiac Research, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Electronic address: gbardy@sicr.org.
authors: Gust H
authors: GH
authors: Bardy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D047548:Defibrillators; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D013997:Time Factors