Abstract 254: Quality of 2-Minute Continuous Chest Compressions by Medical Students and Lay Rescuers

Abstract

Background: The performing of quality chest compressions is highly emphasized in the American Heart’s 2010 Guidelines. Moreover, it addresses the importance of continuous chest compressions (hands-only) as the best approach when faced with a sudden cardiac arrest victim when a ventilation barrier device is not available. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that first-year medical students perform two-minute continuous chest compressions with lower quality than those performed by lay rescuers who had Heartsaver ® CPR AED training at least every 2 years. Methods: The volunteers initially attained the Heartsaver® CPR AED course. After approximately 30 minutes they performed 2 minutes continuous chest compressions in the Resusci Anne training mannequin, with a PC reporting system. Results: When comparing the 76 medical students with the 74 trained lay rescuers, the average age (20 vs. 40 years), the male gender (54% vs. 92%), the mean body mass index (24.9 vs. 27.3 kg/m2) and physical activity (55% vs. 36%) presented significant differences, p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.01 and p=0.04, respectively. Regarding the quality of chest compressions, the average rate (121 vs. 124 compression/minute), duty cycle (47% vs. 45%), the percentage of compressions with correct hand positioning (87% vs. 90%) and the average depth (45 vs. 49 mm), showed no significant difference, p=0.05, p=0.06, p=0.32 and p=0.10, respectively. However, the percentage of adequate depth compressions (43% vs. 58%) and the percentage of compressions without error (36% vs. 50%) revealed a significant difference, p=0.01 and p<0.01. Conclusion: In conclusion, the results show that important parameters like the percentage of compressions with adequate depth and compressions without error had a significant difference, demonstrating that although being lay rescuers, the constant cardiac resuscitation training allows performing higher quality chest compressions than those performed by medical students. It’s need ongoing training of medical students, because they must perform good-quality chest compressions too.