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In a prospective observational study, researchers in Japan examined the effect of nationwide dissemination of public access automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. As part of Japan's public health policy, the number of publically available AEDs rose eightfold from 2005 through 2007.
During the 3-year study period, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel documented 169,000 adult patients with arrests that were presumed to be of cardiac origin. Of 12,631 patients with witnessed arrests of cardiac origin and initial rhythms of ventricular fibrillation, 462 received first shocks from public access AEDs before EMS personnel arrived, and most of the remaining patients received shocks delivered …