Improved Survival After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Use of Automated External Defibrillators

Background—In recent years, a wider use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to treat out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was advocated in The Netherlands. We aimed to establish whether survival with favorable neurologic outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has significantly increased, and, if so, whether this is attributable to AED use. Methods and Results—We performed a population-based cohort study, including patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from cardiac causes between 2006 and 2012, excluding emergency medical service–witnessed arrests. We determined survival status at each stage (to emergency department, to admission, and to discharge) and examined temporal trends using logistic regression analysis with year of resuscitation as an independent variable. By adding each covariable subsequently to the regression model, we investigated their impact on the odds ratio of year of resuscitation. Analyses were performed according to initial rhythm (shockable versus nonshockable) and AED u...