Abstract
Background
TASER (TASER International, Scottsdale, AZ) conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) are
commonly used by law enforcement officers. Although animal studies have suggested
that transcardiac CEW discharges may produce direct cardiac effects, this has not
been demonstrated in human studies.
Objectives
This study sought to determine the incidence and outcomes of transcardiac CEW probe
impact locations in a large series of actual CEW deployments.
Methods
A multi-center database of consecutive CEW uses by law enforcement officers was retrospectively
reviewed. Case report forms were independently reviewed by three investigators to
identify cases with paired probe configurations potentially producing a transcardiac
discharge vector. Descriptive analysis was performed and inter-rater reliability was
assessed.
Results
Among 1201 total CEW uses, 813 included probe deployments and 178 cases had paired
anterior probe impacts potentially capable of producing a transcardiac discharge vector.
This represents 14.8% of all CEW uses (95% confidence interval [CI] 12.9–16.9%) and
21.9% of CEW uses in probe mode (95% CI 19.1–24.9%). Inter-rater agreement was very
good, with kappa = 0.82. There were no immediate deaths in any cases (97.5% CI 0.0–0.3%)
to suggest a cardiac dysrhythmia, including those with transcardiac discharge vector.
Conclusion
CEW deployments with probe impact configurations capable of producing a transcardiac
discharge occur in a minority of cases in field use conditions. None of these cases,
transcardiac or otherwise, produced immediately fatal dysrhythmias. These data support
the overall safety of CEWs and provide a benchmark estimate of the likelihood of transcardiac
discharge vectors occurring in field use of CEWs.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 06, 2012
Accepted:
March 20,
2012
Received in revised form:
December 21,
2011
Received:
October 12,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Safety of Transcardiac Conducted Electrical Weapon Probe Deployments Remains UnclearJournal of Emergency MedicineVol. 46Issue 4
- PreviewThe recently published article on conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) by Bozeman et al. is a welcome addition to the growing literature on CEW safety (1). The authors should be careful, however, about over-extending their findings of limited injury in 178 patients when they conclude that “fatal cardiac dysrhythmias are unlikely to occur when CEWs are deployed on human subjects in real life situations.”
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