**4. Conclusions**

Sudden cardiac arrest, frequently due to VF or pulseless VT, is traditionally associated with poor survival rates. Saving the lives of these patients depends on early cardiac defibrillation which, with manual defibrillators, is limited only to qualified rescuers who can interpret ECGs. AEDs solve this problem since they are able to analyze rhythm and inform the rescu‐ ers whether a shock is indicated. This approach allows lay rescuers to provide effective early defibrillation which has been shown to significantly improve survival and survival with in‐ tact neurologic function after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. One limitation is that AED use requires interruptions in CPR which was proved to be deleterious especially in patients with non-shockable rhythms. Special efforts are being made in order to improve rhythm analysis and 'hands-off' time during CPR.
