Feedback Technology Increases CPR Survival

Defibrillators equipped with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) feedback technology more than double out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates.

Researchers at the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System (AZDHS; Phoenix, USA) conducted a study to examine the influence of scenario-based training and real-time audiovisual feedback on OHCA survival rates. The study involved two phases: phase 1 included 18 months of CPR with real-time audiovisual feedback disabled; phase 2 included 16 months after scenario-based training of 373 professional rescuers and real-time audiovisual feedback enabled. The effect of interventions on survival to hospital discharge was assessed, with multiple imputation of missing data used to analyze the effect of interventions on CPR quality. The analysis included 484 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients (median age 68 year; 66.5% men).

The results showed that CPR quality measures improved significantly, with witnessed arrests and shockable rhythms survival increasing from 26.3% in phase 1 to 55.6% in phase 2. Mean chest compression rate decreased; mean chest compression depth and median chest compression fraction increased; and median preshock pause and mean ventilation rate decreased. All-rhythms survival increased from phase 1 to phase 2 with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.72, controlling for initial rhythm, witnessed arrest, age, minimally interrupted cardiac resuscitation protocol compliance, and provision of therapeutic hypothermia. The study was published online on March 1, 2013, in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

“We know that maximizing blood flow to the heart and brain during cardiac arrest is paramount, but manual CPR without any feedback is often very poor with lots of interruptions and suboptimal compressions,” said lead author Ben Bobrow, MD, medical director of THE AZDHS. “We believe that these results clearly demonstrate how critical it is to measure CPR quality during cardiac resuscitation.”

For the study, the rescuers used ZOLL Medical Corporation (Chelmsford, MA, USA) defibrillators with CPR feedback technology, including Real CPR Help and CPR Dashboard, in combination with scenario-based training.

Related Links:
Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System
ZOLL Medical Corporation