CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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To describe the patient characteristics, circumstances and community response in cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; to evaluate the effect on survival of the introduction of prehospital defibrillation; and to identify factors that predict survival. ⋯ The survival rate was lower than expected. The availability of prehospital defibrillation did not affect survival. To improve survival rates after cardiac arrest ambulance response times must be reduced and the frequency of bystander-initiated CPR increased. Once these changes are in place a beneficial effect from advanced manoeuvres such as prehospital defibrillation may be seen.