ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Immediate cardiovascular effects of the Taser X26 conducted electrical weapon
Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA
Correspondence to:
Dr W P Bozeman, WFU Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, NC 27106-1089, USA; wbozeman{at}wfubmc.edu
Study objectives: To evaluate the immediate cardiac and cardiovascular effects of Taser X26 conducted electrical weapon (CEW) exposure in human volunteers, including heart rhythm, rate and blood pressure.
Methods: Volunteer police officers participating in CEW training and testing each underwent a 5, 3 and 1 s exposure to the Taser X26 CEW. Continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring was performed before, during and after each exposure. Blood pressures were measured at rest before and within 1 minute after each exposure. Paired sample t-test analysis and confidence interval calculations were performed.
Results: 84 Taser exposures were monitored among 28 subjects (24 men, four women) with an average age of 34 years (range 24–46, SD 5.6). No cardiac dysrhythmias or aberrantly conducted beats were seen. Mean heart rate increased by 10.9 beats per minute (bpm) (95% CI 8.2 to 13.7) from 121.7 to 132.6 (p<0.001). The QRS and QTc cardiac intervals did not change significantly. Mean blood pressure increased from 138.6/82.8 mm Hg at rest to 145.8/85.6 mm Hg after the standard 5-s CEW discharge.
Conclusion: CEW exposure produced no detectable dysrhythmias and a statistically significant increase in heart rate. Overall, Taser CEW exposure appears to be safe and well tolerated from a cardiovascular standpoint in this population. This study increases the cumulative human subject experience of CEW exposure with continuous ECG monitoring and includes 28 full 5-s exposures.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Primary survey
- Geoff Hughes
Emerg. Med. J. 2009 26: 547.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
