The safety and efficacy of hands-on defibrillation in the management of adult cardiac arrest: A systematic review

Objective: Hands-on defibrillation (HOD) is a technique that has great potential to positively impact outcomes from cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with the removal of an interruption in chest compressions. The safety and efficacy of HOD, however, have yet to be proven. This review aims to examine the safety of HOD, and secondarily, its efficacy. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed through PubMed, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Database. Additional articles were selected from the reference lists of this search result. Results: From 52 results, 26 articles were reviewed and from the references of these articles, 9 more were included, leaving 35 articles for analysis. 14 of the analyzed articles were excluded. Conclusions: HOD generally appears safe, though significant uncertainty still remains for each protective barrier type. HOD appears to be efficacious in improving CPR with no strong evidence to suggest otherwise. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.