Barrières voor doeltreffend gebruik van publieke automatische externe defibrillatoren

Barriers to effective use of public automated external defibrillators Public automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have enormous potential to increase survival rates after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, in a previous manuscript we showed via a theoretical model that only limited added value can be expected from the 37 public AEDs in the municipality of Wetteren. This study investigates the barriers that limit the use of public AEDs in Wetteren. Our analyses show that the distribution of public AEDs does not correspond to the distribution of OHCAs with a shockable rhythm. If a maximum distance to a public AED of 250 m is taken as the norm, only 23 of the 43 OHCA victims with a shockable rhythm (53%) could be attended quick enough. Conversely, we registered at least one OHCA within a radius of 250 m for only 16 of the 37 public AEDs (43%). The results regarding 24/7 availability are also dismal: only 24% of the devices can be picked up day and night by a care provider. A third weak point is the difficult search for a public AED: the (digital) databases are incomplete and often unreliable, and at the AED location itself it is often not easy to know where the device is located. Our results show that local and federal governments must implement targeted interventions to make public AEDs a spearhead in the approach to OHCA.