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Decreasing In-Hospital Time to Defibrillation

P. Michael Ho, MD, PhD; Steven M. Bradley, MD

Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(14):1260-1261.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Early defibrillation is the definitive treatment for pulseless ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. In the early 1990s, the American Heart Association identified early defibrillation as the single most important predictor of survival in patients who experience cardiac arrest.¹ Each minute delay between onset of cardiac arrest and defibrillation is associated with a 7% to 10% lower likelihood of survival.¹

It was long assumed that hospitals achieved timely defibrillation owing to the presence of multiple health care providers and the wide availability of defibrillators in the hospital setting. However, in a previous study of in-hospital cardiac arrest due to ventricular arrhythmias, Chan et al² demonstrated that delayed defibrillation occurred in nearly one-third of patients. In this issue of the Archives, Chan et al³ extend their prior work by demonstrating wide variation in the frequency of delayed hospital defibrillation among 200 hospitals . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Hospital Variation in Time to Defibrillation After In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Paul S. Chan, Graham Nichol, Harlan M. Krumholz, John A. Spertus, Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, and for the American Heart Association National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (NRCPR) Investigators
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(14):1265-1273.
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