G. Nichol et al., A cumulative meta-analysis of the effectiveness of defibrillator-capable emergency medical services for victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, ANN EMERG M, 34(4), 1999, pp. 517-525
Study objective: More than 1,000 patients experience sudden cardiac arrest
each day. Treatment for this includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) a
nd emergency medical services (EMS) that provide CPR-basic life support (BL
S), BLS with defibrillation (BLS-D), or advanced life support (ALS). Our pr
evious systematic review of treatments for sudden cardiac arrest was limite
d by suboptimal data. Since then, debate has increased about whether bystan
der CPR is effective or whether attention should focus instead on rapid def
ibrillation. Therefore a cumulative meta-analysis was conducted to determin
e the relative effectiveness of differences in the defibrillation response
time interval, proportion of bystander CPR, and type of EMS system on survi
val after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed by using a priori
exclusion criteria. We considered EMS systems that provided BLS-D, ALS, BLS
plus ALS, or BLS-D plus ALS care. A generalized linear model was used with
dispersion estimation for random effects.
Results: Thirty-seven eligible articles described 39 EMS systems and includ
ed 33,124 patients. Median survival for all rhythm groups to hospital disch
arge was 6.4% (interquartile; range, 3.7 to 10.3). Odds of survival were 1.
06 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.09; P < .01) per 5% increase in
bystander CPR. Survival was constant if the defibrillation response time i
nterval was less than 6 minutes, decreased as the interval increased from 6
to 11 minutes, and leveled off after 11 minutes (P < .01). Compared with B
LS-D, odds of survival were as follows: ALS, 1.71 (95% CI, 1.09 to 2.70; P
= .01); BLS plus ALS, 1.47 (95% CI, 0.89 to 2.42; P = .07); and BLS with de
fibrillation plus ALS, 2.31 (95% CI, 1.47 to 3.62; P < .01.)
Conclusion: We confirm that greater survival after sudden cardiac arrest is
associated with provision of bystander CPR, early defibrillation, or ALS.
More research is required to evaluate the relative benefit of early defibri
llation versus early ALS.