OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of training strategy on team deployment of a mechanical chest compression device. DESIGN Randomised controlled manikin trial. SETTING Large teaching hospital in the UK. PARTICIPANTS Twenty teams, each comprising three clinicians. Participating individuals were health professionals with intermediate or advanced resuscitation training. INTERVENTIONS Teams...

The present report deals with a new technique for the correction of pectus carinatum. Although less frequent than pectus excavatum, this deformity leads to numerous consultations, as it is difficult to conceal and affects the personality and behavior of many young patients. We report the case of a 13-year-old boy with asymmetrical pectus carinatum. The chest wall was compressible, so the protru...

OBJECTIVE To determine at what age children can perform effective chest compressions for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. DESIGN Observational study. SETTING Four schools in Cardiff. PARTICIPANTS 157 children aged 9-14 years in three school year groups (ages 9-10, 11-12, and 13-14). INTERVENTIONS Participants were taught basic life support skills in one lesson lasting 20 minutes. MAIN O...

Background—Guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation recommend a chest compression rate of at least 100 compressions per minute. Animal and human studies have reported that blood flow is greatest with chest compression rates near 120/min, but few have reported rates used during out-of-hospital (OOH) cardiopulmonary resuscitation or the relationship between rate and outcome. The purpose of th...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to measure chest compression decay during simulated advanced life support (ALS) in a cardiac arrest manikin model. METHODS 19 paramedic teams, each consisting of three paramedics, performed ALS for 12 minutes with the same paramedic providing all chest compressions. The patient was a resuscitation manikin found in ventricular fibrillation (VF). The first s...

Current resuscitation methods, although occasionally effective, rarely perform as well as initially anticipated. Some of the disappointment can be attributed to the difficulty of the task for many, including both professional and lay first responders. Significant attention has been paid recently to the need to simplify both the technique and the teaching of resuscitation. In considering simplif...

AIM To summarise the evidence from randomised controlled trials of mechanical chest compression devices used during resuscitation after out of hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS Systematic review of studies evaluating the effectiveness of mechanical chest compression. We included randomised controlled trials or cluster randomised trials that compared mechanical chest compression (using any devi...

OBJECTIVES To assess how the quality of metronome-guided cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was affected by the chest compression rate familiarised by training before the performance and to determine a possible mechanism for any effect shown. DESIGN Prospective crossover trial of a simulated, one-person, chest-compression-only CPR. SETTING Participants were recruited from a medical school ...

During the past 15 years, many different studies have documented improved blood pressure and blood flow above the diaphragm when some type of abdominal compression was added to conventional CPR, either in animals or in humans. Rhythmically interposed abdominal compressions seem to provide even greater hemodynamic benefit than continuous abdominal binding. Both total flow and the distribution of...