Cardiac arrest: Can the in-hospital chain of survival be improved?

Summary 

Survival from cardiac arrest decreases between 7 and 10% each minute defibrillation is delayed. Within the pre-hospital care environment, public access defibrillation programs and first-responders utilise semi-automatic external defibrillators to effectively increase survival following cardiac arrest from approximately 10% to approximately 60%. However, survival from an in-hospital cardiac arrest remains at approximately 10% despite the introduction of medical emergency teams. This discussion paper examines various methods to increase the in-hospital survival rate following a cardiac arrest, such as the implementation of first-responder semi-automatic external defibrillator programs and increasing education standards in basic and advanced cardiac life support.

Keywords: Resuscitation, Chain of survival, Defibrillation, Semi-automatic external defibrillation, First-responder, Cardiac arrest, Medical emergency team