Transcardiac Conducted Electrical Weapon (TASER) Probe Deployments: Incidence and Outcomes

Bozeman, William P.; Teacher, Eric; Winslow, James E.

doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2012.03.022

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…27 The unsupported implied inclusion criterion of any chest ECD exposure (regardless of the dart-to-heart distance) was surprising in view of the negative epidemiological association found between ECD chest exposures and mortality. 44, 45 Bozeman et al 44 reported that 49% (424 of 874) of probe-mode cases involved a probe in the chest (not to be confused with the much smaller percentage of total probes found in the chest). White et al 45 found that only 36% (57 of 158) of ECD-involved arrest-related deaths had a chest probe (P=0.004 by χ 2 ), thus disproving the hypothesis that an application anywhere on the chest presents a risk of VF.…”

Section: Summary Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

et al. 2014

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Being arrested is a highly emotional event and can result in a fatal, adrenergically supercharged physiological state. 1 The exertion of arrest-related struggle is several-fold greater than that seen with normal exercise and leads to numerous extreme metabolic and electrolytic derangements, including elevated levels of lactate, CO 2 , potassium, creatine kinase, and myoglobin.2 Only 1.6% of US law-enforcement interactions involve the use or threats of force, and annually there are ≈700 000 cases in which force is used or threatened.3 There are ≈700 arrest-related deaths per year in the United States, yielding a mortality rate of ≈1 in 1000 for a law-enforcement interaction associated with force. 4 Response by Zipes on p 100The electronic control device (ECD) has gained widespread acceptance as the force option for law enforcement because of its dramatic reduction in both suspect and officer injury. At the same time, advocacy groups post statements on the Internet listing the hundreds of arrest-related deaths after ECD use with the implication that the ECD involvement was causal. Studies covering a total of >48 000 forceful arrests have consistently found suspect injury rate reductions of ≈65%.5,6 Of the 250 000 annual ECD field uses in the United States, only 1 in 4000 is involved in an arrest-related death. This reduction in fatality rate is consistent with published data showing that 5.4% of ECD uses "clearly prevented the use of lethal force by police." 7Of the >3 million total ECD applications, there have been 12 published case reports suggesting a potential cardiac arrest link, giving an incidence of 4×10 −6 per application. [8][9][10][11][12][13] In most cases, those authors did not consider important factors that are now better understood. These include separating postural from cardiovascular collapse, the latency of electrically induced ventricular fibrillation (VF), the presence of significant cardiac pathology, failure of prompt defibrillation, the duration of documented breathing, the distance of the ECD electrode from the heart, and the stability of electrically induced VF. We have thoroughly investigated these cases as either TASER scientific advisors or expert witnesses. The goal of this article is to resolve the confusion about these cases by introducing more complete data and by using a consistent case-report scoring methodology. Methods Understanding the Confounders Postural Versus Cardiovascular CollapseIn the normal course of life, an exertional postural collapse is, correctly, often associated with a cardiac arrest. However, it is sometimes forgotten that the ECD design goal is to cause a postural collapse to stop aggression. A sternal rub response is often blunted by the presence of alcohol, illegal drugs, psychotic break, and endorphins from the struggle. Hence, nonresponsiveness is also more difficult to evaluate in the law-enforcement scenario.(Circulation. 2014;129:93-100)

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Section: Summary Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

et al. 2014

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“…Deaths of 2 subjects were not attributed to electric weapon use because of "prolonged combative behavior, cocaine use, cardiac abnormalities, and possible olanzapine toxicity," questionable reasons to exclude an ECD death. Apparently using the same cohort, 11 they noted "no immediate deaths in any cases…to suggest a cardiac dysrhythmia…." January 7, 2014…”

Section: Clinical Epidemiologymentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The number of chest shots is the important metric. one study 11 found that of 813 probe deployments, 21.9% had anterior chest placements. obtaining an accurate estimate of incidence of death, and therefore risk from the TASER, would require an accurate estimate of the total number of deaths (numerator), a potentially underreported value, and the total number of chest shots (denominator), which is unknown.…”

Section: Zipes Taser Devices and Cardiac Arrests 105mentioning

confidence: 99%

TASER Electronic Control Devices Can Cause Cardiac Arrest in Humans

Zipes

2014

Circulation

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“…Bozeman (101) summarized studies with a combined number of 4058 monitored CEW uses (in which delivery of an electric shock was verified) and reported no fatalities. (Bozeman et al [102] and Strote et al [103] presented details of cases making up subsets of this number.) After reviewing the literature regarding CEWs, Nugent et al (104) noted a typical profile of subjects exposed to law-enforcement use of CEWs: "men with belligerent or bizarre behavior who often have a psychiatric disorder or are intoxicated."…”

Section: General Aspects Of Short-duration Cew Exposuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposures to Conducted Electrical Weapons (IncludingTASER^®Devices): How Many and for How Long are Acceptable?

Jauchem

2014

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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TASER(®) conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) are an important law-enforcement tool. The purposes of this study are a) to review recent literature regarding potential pathophysiological responses to applications of CEWs, and other related issues and b) to evaluate whether enough data exist to determine the acceptability of longer-duration (or repeated) exposures. This is a narrative review, using a multidisciplinary approach of analyzing reports from physiological, legal-medical, and police-strategy literature sources. In general, short-duration exposures to CEWs result in limited effects. Longer-duration or repeated exposures may be utilized with caution, although there are currently not enough data to determine the acceptability of all types of exposures. Data examined in the literature have inherent limitations. Appropriateness of specific types of CEW usage may be determined by individual police agencies, applying risk/benefit analyses unique to each organization. While more research is recommended, initial concepts of potential future long-duration or repeated CEW applications are presented.

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Transcardiac Conducted Electrical Weapon (TASER) Probe Deployments: Incidence and Outcomes

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

TASER Electronic Control Devices Can Cause Cardiac Arrest in Humans

Exposures to Conducted Electrical Weapons (IncludingTASER^®Devices): How Many and for How Long are Acceptable?

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Transcardiac Conducted Electrical Weapon (TASER) Probe Deployments: Incidence and Outcomes

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

TASER Electronic Control Devices and Cardiac Arrests: Coincidental or Causal?

TASER Electronic Control Devices Can Cause Cardiac Arrest in Humans

Exposures to Conducted Electrical Weapons (IncludingTASER®Devices): How Many and for How Long are Acceptable?

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Exposures to Conducted Electrical Weapons (IncludingTASER^®Devices): How Many and for How Long are Acceptable?