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Cardiac arrest

Defibrillation strategy RCT gets underway

Strategies for Defibrillation during Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest – Protocol for a Randomised Clinical Trial
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-10 · Added 8 October 2026

Protocol for a multinational 3-arm RCT testing whether anterior-posterior pad placement or double sequential defibrillation beats standard anterior-lateral defibrillation for 30-day survival in shockable OHCA — no results yet, with 320 of a planned 909 patients enrolled.

Study type

RCT

Design

Multinational 3-group randomised clinical trial (protocol)

Participants

Planned 909; 320 enrolled by September 2026 (Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Ireland)

Main finding

Protocol only — adults with shockable OHCA and two manual defibrillators available are randomised 1:1:1 to anterior-lateral, anterior-posterior, or double sequential defibrillation, with 30-day survival as the primary outcome; no efficacy results reported

Caveat

A trial protocol with no outcome data — nothing here changes practice until results land, likely several years away

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Update my understanding of defibrillation pad placement strategies for shockable out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

More

• Topic: Cardiac arrest
• Daily scan: 8 October 2026

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