Effectiveness of ultraportable automated external defibrillators: A scoping review

Background

Ultraportable automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are a new generation of defibrillators that are small, lightweight, easy to carry on one’s person, and affordable for personal and home use. They offer the opportunity to increase AED availability in case of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and therefore improve outcomes.

We aimed to review evidence supporting the potential effect on outcomes and the performance of these ultraportable AEDs.

Methods

We searched Ovid Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases from 2012 to July 4th, 2024 to identify any studies related to ultraportable AED. The population was adult and children with OHCA who were treated with an ultra-portable AED. All outcomes were accepted. We limited study designs to randomized controlled trials and non-randomized studies. Data charting was done by the primary author using standardized data abstraction forms.

Results

The search strategy identified 54 studies (Pubmed = 26, Embase = 28, with 19 duplicates). We included three articles in the final review. One study was a medico-economic simulation study including 600,000 simulated patients, one is the study protocol of cluster randomized trial of providing ultraportable AEDs to first responders and one is an abstract with preliminary results of this trial reporting 1805 community responders recruited, 903 allocated to ultraportable AED. No studies to date have reported patient outcomes.

Conclusion

This review found no evidence of ultraportable AED device performance, clinical or safety outcomes. There is an urgent need for further research to determine the safety and effectiveness of ultraportable AEDs.