Defibrillators, devices which can restore a heart’s rhythm during cardiac arrest, are underused in the home, a new study finds. The devices can be effective in resusicating people suffering heart attacks by administering electricity to the heart.

Title: Home Defibrillators Fail to Boost Survival Rates Category: Health News Created: 4/2/2008 2:00:00 AM Last Editorial Review: 4/2/2008

Automated external defibrillators in the home are safe, easy-to-use and effective for some types of cardiac arrest, but are underused, a U.S. study found.

Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis.

CHICAGO - A defibrillator does help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis. But a study has found that CPR, which comes at a much lower cost, also works. The study looked at 7,000 people, about half of whom had the heart-shocking devices in the home.

Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis, but so can CPR and at a much lower cost.

At the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in Chicago, David Callans, MD, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was available to comment on the New England Journal of Medicine study on the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for sudden cardiac arrests that occur in the [...]

They save lives, but so does CPR, study of heart-shock devices finds Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis, but so can CPR and at a much lower cost. That’s the bottom line from the first test of using these heart-shocking devices in [...]

Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis, but so can CPR — and at a much lower cost. That’s the bottom line from the first test of using these heart-shocking devices in the home. The devices worked. But so few people in the study were stricken [...]

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE CHICAGO — Having a defibrillator at home can help a heart attack survivor live through a second crisis, but so can CPR and at a much lower cost. That’s the bottom line from the first test of using these heart-shocking devices in the home. The devices worked. But so few people [...]