Should the results of the study be implemented in the real situations?
Andrej Zmavc, Community health care center Celje / Prehospital emergency medicine
3 March 2005
The study is very interesting but it has some important limitations at real life situations as well.
Firstly - the medical students are definitely not representative for the general population (understanding the problem, interest and attitudes, etc.).
Secondly - although the times to the first defibrillation, presented in the study, were surprisingly short, this tells us nothing about the most important issue in sudden cardiac arrest victims - prompt and effective chest compressions.
Lastly - before implementing a defibrillator one (a lay person) must identify and recognize cardiac arrest and get the device. This usually takes a few minutes. Do we speak about very early defibrillation then?
Should the results of the study be implemented in the real situations?
3 March 2005
The study is very interesting but it has some important limitations at real life situations as well.
Firstly - the medical students are definitely not representative for the general population (understanding the problem, interest and attitudes, etc.).
Secondly - although the times to the first defibrillation, presented in the study, were surprisingly short, this tells us nothing about the most important issue in sudden cardiac arrest victims - prompt and effective chest compressions.
Lastly - before implementing a defibrillator one (a lay person) must identify and recognize cardiac arrest and get the device. This usually takes a few minutes. Do we speak about very early defibrillation then?
Competing interests
None declared