[First responder defibrillation in the USA, Europe and Germany--prerequisites, experiences, perspectives]

Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death and only 5-8% of patients survive such event. Defibrillation is the mose effective treatment and should performed within 5 minutes; however, its effectiveness diminishes with each passing minute. "Early defibrillation" is the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by trained public-safety personnal ("first responder"), whereas "public access" defibrillation describes AED use by persons who have no specific AED training. Several studies in the US and in Europe show that first responder defibrillation will increase the number of survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest compared to paramedics. This is caused by a shorter "call-to-arrival-time" in first responders compared to paramedics. In Europe, programs for the use of automated external defibrillators exist only occasionally. Reasons for this are the lack of open-mindedness, logistic and legal problems. In Germany, there are only few AED programs with promising results. At the present time, placement of automated external defibrillators in public places frequented by a large number of susceptible people will increase overall survival. However, placement of AEDs in all public places is still debatable and further studies are necessary to estimate the potential impact of publicc access defibrillators.