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A comparative brief on conducted electrical weapon safety

Eine vergleichende Sicherheitsanalyse von Elektroschockdistanzwaffen

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Summary

The variety and high number of published research articles on conducted electrical weapons (CEW) provides a detailed, yet in some parts inconclusive overview of medical aspects of CEW. Due to different research approaches and the use of dissimilar test subjects, an assessment of possible health risks of CEW is limited. The present work provides a brief on CEW safety based on currently available animal, computer and human research data. Using the medical database PubMed, articles published on this topic are critically evaluated and compared with each other. Special focuses are the differences and similarities of human and animal research as well as computer simulation programs. The authors explain why some studies are more reliable than others and give their expert opinion on the safety of CEW. The body of data that have been reviewed provides reasonable support for the safety of CEW.

Zusammenfassung

Die Vielfalt und hohe Anzahl der veröffentlichten Forschungsergebnisse zum Thema der Elektroschockdistanzwaffen („conducted electrical weapons“, CEW) liefert einen detaillierten, aber nicht immer eindeutigen Überblick über medizinische Aspekte dieser Geräte. Aufgrund unterschiedlicher Forschungsansätze und der Verwendung andersartiger Versuchsobjekte ist eine allgemeingültige und v. a. auch auf spezielle Einsatzszenarien übertragbare Einschätzung potenzieller Gesundheitsrisiken von CEW nur begrenzt möglich. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über die CEW-Sicherheit auf der Grundlage von derzeit verfügbaren Tier‑, Computer- und humanen Forschungsdaten. Unter Nutzung der medizinischen Datenbank PubMed werden zu diesem Thema publizierte Artikel kritisch bewertet und miteinander verglichen. Besondere Schwerpunkte sind die Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten von Human- und Tierforschung sowie von Computersimulationsprogrammen. Die Autoren erklären, warum ihrer Meinung nach manche Studien zuverlässiger sind als andere und geben eine Einschätzung zur Sicherheit von CEW ab. Die untersuchten Daten lassen die Sicherheit von CEW vertretbar erscheinen.

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  1. Department of Forensic Pathology, Landspítali University Hospital Reykjavik, v/Barónsstíg 101, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Sebastian N. Kunz

  2. Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ludwigs-Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany

    Jiri Adamec

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This paper is a result of literature search, which was not funded. S.N. Kunz is a member of the scientific medical advisory board of Axon Int. (fka TASER). J. Adamec declares that he has no competing interests.

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Kunz, S.N., Adamec, J. A comparative brief on conducted electrical weapon safety. Wien Med Wochenschr 169, 185–192 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10354-018-0616-4

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