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Use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in hospitals might improve survival by lessening the time to defibrillation in patients who experience cardiac arrest. However, previous single-center studies have yielded mixed results.
Researchers performed a cohort study in more than 11,000 patients with in-hospital cardiac arrests at approximately 200 U.S. hospitals from 2000 to 2008, following introduction of AEDs at these institutions. Among the 82% of patients with cardiac arrests caused by nonshockable rhythms (e.g., asystole, pulseless electrical activity), AED use was associated with lower survival than was no AED use (10.4% vs. 15.4%). In patients who had shockable rhythms (e.g., ventricular fibrillation, pulseless ventricular tachyc…