Dispatch of Volunteer Responders to Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Martin Jonsson
  • Ellinor Berglund
  • Enrico Baldi
  • Maria Luce Caputo
  • Angelo Auricchio
  • Marieke T. Blom
  • Hanno L. Tan
  • Remy Stieglis
  • Linn Andelius
  • Folke, Fredrik
  • Jacob Hollenberg
  • Leif Svensson
  • Mattias Ringh
  • ESCAPE-NET Investigators

Background: Systems for dispatch of volunteer responders to collect automated external defibrillators and/or to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in cases of nearby out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are widely implemented. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether the activation of a volunteer responder system to OHCAs was associated with higher rates of bystander CPR, bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival vs no system activation. Methods: This was a retrospective observational analysis within the ESCAPE-NET (European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network: Towards Prevention, Education, New Effective Treatment) collaborative research network. Included were cases of OHCA between 2015 and 2019 from 5 European sites with volunteer responder systems. At all sites, systems were activated by dispatchers at the emergency medical communication center in response to suspected OHCA. Exposed cases (system activation) were compared with nonexposed cases (no system activation). Risk ratios (RRs) were calculated for the outcomes of bystander CPR, bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival after inverse probability treatment weighting. Missing data were handled using multiple imputation. Results: In total, 9,553 cases were included. In 4,696 cases, the volunteer responder system was activated, and in 4,857 it was not. The pooled RRs were 1.30 (95% CI: 1.15–1.47) for bystander CPR, 1.89 (95% CI: 1.36–2.63) for bystander defibrillation, and 1.22 (95% CI: 1.07–1.39) for 30-day survival. Conclusions: Activation of a volunteer response system in cases of OHCA was associated with a higher chance of bystander CPR, bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival vs no system activation. A randomized controlled trial is necessary to determine fully the causal effect of volunteer responder systems.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of the American College of Cardiology
Volume82
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)200-210
Number of pages11
ISSN0735-1097
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American College of Cardiology Foundation

    Research areas

  • cardiopulmonary resuscitation, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, volunteer responders

ID: 363711368