[Dmblock]

Evidently the success of resuscitation mostly depends on timing. The most rational explanation of this fact is that human organs and especially the brain are extremely sensitive to oxygen deficiency. Therefore early resuscitation improves the prognosis for these patients. At first almost always sudden cardiac death appears in the form of severe arrhythmia, usually ventricular fibrillation.
An emergency cardiac defibrillation performed within the first 3 min saves more than 90% of lives.
Unfortunately the absolute majority of these critical cases take place in public places far from medical professionals. So a few studies that concern the participation of non-professonals in this work have been finished recently. The automated external defibrillator (AED) for public usage was approved for the first time in these trials. It has been shown that any man-on-the-street after a short practice course can put this device to good use.
From that time the AED is being applied widely.
Actually there are about 1 million defibrillators ready for emergency administration in public places now in the United States. Their use saved at least 4000 lives in the last year. There is some hope that the excellent experience will be carried into our country.

[Maladict]

Dmblock, but what does this defibrillator contraption do? Does it restart a person's heart completely? I didn't quite get the technical explanation when I looked it up.

[Dmblock]

Thank you for your interest in this post.The AED for non-professonals is totally simple to use. In case of emergency the rescuer should open the device and carry out the instructions displayed on the screen. The AED detects arrhythmia by itself and if required delivers a shock to return the heart to a normal rhythm. The rescuers need to have only one day classes done before they can apply the device. There are several levels of safety which prevent any complications from mistaken application. The AED seems to be a good device for resuscitation in the absence of an advanced medical care.

[Maladict]

Speaking of advanced medical care, would you happen to know anything about this stem cell story? Is that something that is actually on the cards for the nearest future? My interest is of course purely theoretical but I find the idea of treatment through cell therapy fascinating. Could you comment on the issue?

[Dmblock]

I think a crucial moment of any treatment is a strict conformity with the principle of evidence-based medicine. Sometimes it seems that a certain modern approach might be used to solve some particular problem. There are a lot of experimental preconditions for that. However when we have received data from placebo-controlled clinical trials our expectations have not been met. This statement totally concerns stem cell therapy. Up to now we didn't have sufficient evidence to support using stem cells in cardiology. There is no FDA approval for these drugs and I don't think they will get it very soon. Actually, on the other hand stem cell therapy has good clinical prospects and further studies should be continued.Unfortunately, there are a lot of swindlers who take advantage of people's ignorance foisting unproven treatment. I think the media should give out the right information to people about stem cell therapy.