Drones delivering automated external defibrillators-Integrating unmanned aerial systems into the chain of survival: A simulation study in rural Germany.

Autor: Baumgarten MC; Department of Anesthesiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany. Electronic address: mina.baumgarten@uni-greifswald.de., Röper J; Department of Anesthesiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany; University of Greifswald, Greifswald Germany., Hahnenkamp K; Department of Anesthesiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany., Thies KC; Department of Anesthesiology, Ev. Klinikum Bethel - Universitätsklinikum OWL der Universität Bielefeld, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Resuscitation [Resuscitation] 2022 Mar; Vol. 172, pp. 139-145. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2021.12.025
Abstrakt: Background: Community first responders (CFR) improve survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) but are often hampered by limited availability of public access defibrillation. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) delivering automated external defibrillators (AED) directly to an OHCA site could help overcome this. We evaluated the feasibility of integrating UAS into the chain of survival in rural Northeast Germany.
Methods: This simulation study explored UAS-AED delivery combined with a smartphone-based CFR dispatch. Five OHCA locations (A-E) were randomly selected. We routed a flight corridor to each of these sites from a corresponding UAS base; 50 OHCA scenarios with 10 flights per corridor were scheduled. All steps were accurately simulated, from a bystander finding the patient, making an emergency call, conducting dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and simultaneous CFR plus UAS deployment, to the bystander and CFR interacting with UAS and AED. This process was time-tracked and video-recorded until defibrillation.
Results: We performed 46 OHCA simulations. Missions were flown autonomously but needed pilot assistance during landing. Distances (km) and average time intervals from alert to defibrillation (t d in min:sec ± SD) were 0.4 (6:02 ± 0:56), 2.29 (6:53 ± 0:19), 4.0 (8:54 ± 0:25), 7.43 (14:51 ± 1:055), and 9.79 (15:51 ± 1:16) for routes A to E, respectively. All participants were able to retrieve the AED within seconds after UAS landing and interacted safely with the UAS and AED.
Conclusions: Integrating airborne AED delivery into the chain of survival appeared feasible and safe but remains an experimental technology. Linking this with CFR potentially improves the availability of early public-access defibrillation, particularly in rural regions.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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