«Analysis of survival at cardiac arrest in events occurred in work environments in the territory served by an operations center of the 118 of Tuscany».
Background:: The global incidence of cardiac arrest is nearly one person in 1,000 per year, a rate which also applies to Italy; a great deal of these events is likely to strike people outside their homes. Objectives: To analyze a cohort of cardiac arrest events occurred in various public spaces and workplaces across an area under the responsibility of an Emergency Unit related to the national emergency number (118) and to assess the efficacy of first-aid intervention and the usage of a defibrillator while handling an acute cardiac event.
Methods:: We analyzed data of 32 sanitary interventions on cardiac arrest events occurred from January 2015 to June 2018 across USL Toscana Centro – Pistoia and Empoli’s jurisdiction. The survival rate to hospital admission has been analysed according to the following parameters: the availability of an AED at the place, the CPR maneuvers performed or not by personnel present at the site and the time of intervention of the sanitary rescuers.
Results:: Twenty-eight point two % of acute cardiac event occurred in a workplace setting, 18.7% during work activity. An AED was present for immediate cardiac arrest treatment in 15.6% of cases with a survival rate of 100% (n=5/5) (p=0.04); in 84.4% of cases the AED was available only after the arrival of national emergency rescuers and the survival rate was 40.74% (n=11/27). The survival rate appears to be higher (55.5% Vs 42.8%) when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started by witnesses at the event.
Conclusions:: The results of this study suggest that early defibrillation provided by work-related First Aid Emergency Procedure may be a primary aid and a desirable standard to improve both workers’ and private citizens’ survival rate after cardiac arrest.