WORKSHEET for Evidence-Based Review of Science for Emergency Cardiac Care Worksheet author(s)

Search strategy (including electronic databases searched). DRAJER: Several search strategies were used for each data base. Only those with maximal hits were considered Embase “defibrillation” AND “pads” AND “impedance” as text words (all fields): 31 hits Embase “defibrillation” AND “pads” AND [<1966-2010]/py: 85 hits PubMed “defibrillation” AND “electrode pads” as text words (all fields): 52 hits. 55 hits Scirus for Scientific Information: “Defibrillation gel composition and thoracic impedance”: 21 hits Lilacs (“desfibrilación” AND “electrodos”) 0 hits Google Scholar (“defibrillation; pads composition; thoracic impedance) 187 hits. KERBER: A PubMed Mesh search was conducted in 2008 using the following search terms: heart arrest or cardiopulmonary resuscitation or electric countershock or transthoracic resistance or transthoracic impedance and gel or paste. This resulted in 56 hits of which 13 items were selected for further review. An Embase search was conducted using the terms heart arrest and defibrillation and electrodes and impedance. This resulted in 6 additional items of which 2 were selected for further review. I then re-performed the Embase search just using the terms defibrillation and impedance. This resulted in 166 hits of which 5 were selected. An AHA EndNote search was conducted using the terms defibrillation and electrode and impedance; 110 items were identified, of which 2 were identified for further review. In addition I searched my extensive personal files (over 1,000 articles on defibrillation, transthoracic impedance, electrodes, cardioversion and resuscitation). Reference lists of all articles cited were searched for additional articles. These searches were re-run in August 2009, using the same search terms, but confining the searches to articles published in 2008-2009 – 41 hits resulted from these repeated searches. Eight (8) articles were initially identified for further review, but none were deemed relevant as they lacked comparisons of the conductive materials.