Cardiac arrest survival after implementation of automated external defibrillator technology in the in-hospital setting.

Background: Survival from ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) arrest is inversely related to delay to defibrillation. The automated external defibrillator (AED) has improved survival after out-of-hospital VT/VF arrest by decreasing time to defibrillation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether survival to discharge after in-hospital cardiac arrest caused by VT/VF could be improved via an institution-wide change from a standard monophasic defibrillator to a biphasic defibrillator with AED capability.