Treatment of ventricular fibrillation. Emergency medical technician defibrillation and paramedic services

Abstract

The effect of rapid defibrillation by emergency medical technicians (EMT) combined with paramedic care was compared with that of standard EMT and paramedic curve on survival [in humans] from 540 witnessed episodes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation. More than 400 EMT were trained in the recognition of ventricular fibrillation and operation of a defibrillator. For a portion of the 3-yr study, emergency care of 179 cases was randomized between the 2 types of services. For randomized cases, when the time interval between EMT and paramedic arrival was > 4 min there was significantly improved survival with EMT defibrillation and paramedic care (42%) compared with basic EMT and paramedic care (19%). Similar findings occurred when all cases were considered (38 vs. 18%). Defibrillation by EMT combined with paramedic services can enhance survival from ventricular fibrillation, compared with basic EMT and paramedic care.