The right defibrillator for your needs

There are no legal restrictions on the purchase of an AED. Any natural or legal person can purchase an AED in Germany. The regulations of the Medical Devices Operator Ordinance (MPBetreibV) apply to the operation of an AED.

A defibrillator (or 'defib’ for short) is used to treat cardiac arrhythmias. These are, for example, ventricular fibrillation, ventricular flutter or ventricular tachycardia.

Therapy is provided by the administration of powerful electrical energy – defibrillation.

Defibrillators are designed for professional and medically trained users, i.e. doctors, intensive care staff, emergency medical services, fire brigades.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, defibrillators have also been developed that may be used by medical laypersons. These special defibrillators are called AED, which stands for automated external defibrillator.

'Automated' means that only the AED can decide about the need for defibrillation. The user is not involved in this decision, cannot influence it and therefore cannot do anything wrong. For this reason, the use of an AED has been made permissible even for laypersons – the rescuer cannot knowingly or unknowingly cause harm to the patient. The application is completely safe for both first aiders and affected persons.

Sudden cardiac death is a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia that, in Germany alone, kills up to 100,000 people of all ages every year.
Immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of a defibrillator or AED is recommended as therapy.

*(Source: ERC-2021-Guidelines)

Defibrillation is an electrical therapy against certain forms of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia, in particular ventricular fibrillation and ventricular flutter.
Defibrillation uses a powerful electrical impulse (the 'shock') to restore normal electrical activity to the heart.

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is a life-threatening pulseless cardiac arrhythmia in which the ventricles are become asynchronous in their function and the heart muscle no longer contracts in an orderly fashion. If left untreated, ventricular fibrillation leads directly to death because of the heart's inability to pump blood. In such a case, an ECG shows fibrillation waves with a frequency of about 300-800/min. Ventricular fibrillation can occur as a complication of a heart attack (see also sudden cardiac death) or be caused by an electrical accident, for example.

(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricular_fibrillation)