New Device Shows CPR Needs Improvement
Reported January 19, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire)
— A new study shows the way CPR is performed isn’t meeting guidelines. An investigational monitor/defibrillator developed by Laerdal Medical Corporation and Philips Medical Systems made this first assessment of CPR guideline-compliance possible.
Researchers from the University of Chicago say, “CPR has been around for 50 years, but until now, we haven’t had a precise, reliable way to assess how well it’s being done. Now we find that it’s not being done very well.”
They found chest compressions during CPR are often too slow, too shallow, and too frequently interrupted, and ventilation rates are usually too high — even in the hospital setting.
In the study, a cardiac arrest response team used the new device to measure the quality of CPR during the first five minutes of each resuscitation attempt on 67 patients who suffered a cardiac arrest.
They found in 28 percent of cases, chest compression rates fell below 90 per minute. The guidelines recommend 100 chest compressions per minute. Also, 37 percent of the compressions were too shallow. Nearly two-thirds of ventilation rates were over 20 per minute, as opposed to the recommended 12 to 16 breaths per minute.
Researchers conclude, “This immediate feedback may help us improve the quality of CPR and potentially increase survival rates.”
Other researchers say consistency of poor CPR performance suggests the need for a guideline revisal.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005;293:305-310