Outcomes of a public access defibrillation program in Girona: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Out-of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) is an important medical issue and a leading cause of mortality all over the world. In Spain there are around 15300 cases of OHCA per year. 82% of them are reported to have a cardiac etiology, with the vast majority suffering from ventricular fibrillation during the early minutes after the collapse. A chain of survival with early defibrillation has shown its effectiveness in recovering these individuals. With the technological improvements in the Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) many Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) programs have been started around the world. A pioneer project of widespread PAD has been started in the province of Girona, north-east of Spain. Aims: 1) To analyze the impact of public-access AED use over the survival rate to hospital discharge in patients with OHCA in the province of Girona. 2) To evaluate the one-month neurological outcome in these patients. Methods: A total of 673 AEDs have been distributed in the whole province of Girona. Prospective data from all bystander-witnessed OHCA in this province will be gathered from 2015 to 2019 Retrospective data about OHCA cases before PAD program will be recruited from the regional Emergency Medical Services (EMS) database. Outcome measures: the main outcome will be survival to hospital discharge in each case. The secondary outcome will be survivor’s neurological outcome at one-month, measured by the Cerebral Performance Scale (CPC)