Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
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Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. · Jan 1982
Community-based cardiopulmonary resuscitation: what have we learned?
During the past 9 years, more than 175,000 residents of Seattle have received basic training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). On the basis of experience in that city and of observations from three other communities, there is little doubt that early initiation of CPA by a bystander is associated with a substantially improved survival. In one year, 43% of patients (47/109) found in a state of ventricular fibrillation survived to hospital discharge when bystanders initiated CPR. ⋯ In patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation, the factors that determine survival are predominantly related to the rapidity with which care is provided, namely, the time from collapse to initiation of CPR and the time to provision of advanced life-support measure. In many communities a 50% survival rate from ventricular fibrillation is probably attainable. Further improvement might accrue from the extensive deployment of inexpensive defibrillators capable of detecting ventricular fibrillation and suitable for use by the general public.