Abstract
Compliant surfaces beneath a casualty diminish the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in clinical environments. To examine this issue in a sporting environment, we assessed chest compression quality and rescuer exertion upon compliant sports safety matting. Twenty-seven advanced life support providers volunteered (13 male/14 female; mass = 79.0 ± 12.5 kg; stature = 1.77 ± 0.09 m). Participants performed 5 × 2 min, randomized bouts of continuous chest compressions on a mannequin, upon five surfaces: solid floor; low-compliance matting; low-compliance matting with a backboard; high-compliance matting; high-compliance matting with a backboard. Measures included chest compression depth and rate, percentage of adequate compressions, and rescuer heart rate and perceived exertion. Chest compression depth and rate were significantly lower upon high-compliance matting relative to other surfaces (p<0.05). The percentage of adequate compressions (depth ≥50 mm) was lowest upon high-compliance matting (40 ± 39%) versus low-compliance matting (60 ± 36%) and low-compliance matting with a backboard (59 ± 39%). Perceived exertion was significantly greater upon high-compliance matting versus floor, low-compliance matting, and low-compliance matting with a backboard (p<0.05). Providers of CPR should be alerted to the detrimental effects of compliant safety matting in a sporting environment and prepare to alter the targeted compression depth and rescuer rotation intervals accordingly.
Highlights
Global survival rates following cardiac arrest are low (2.8–47.4%) [1] and influenced by factors including the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated defibrillator (AED) access [2]
This study examined the effect of compliant safety matting on chest compression quality in a sporting environment
Our findings show that high-compliance safety matting found in sporting environments significantly reduced chest-compression quality, and increased rescuer perceived exertion
Summary
Global survival rates following cardiac arrest are low (2.8–47.4%) [1] and influenced by factors including the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated defibrillator (AED) access [2]. Cardiac arrest during exercise is rare, with an estimated incidence of 4.5 per million per year [3, 4], sport and recreation venues have been identified as higherrisk environments [5]. In such venues, prompt bystander-delivered CPR and AED deployment are more likely and, confer a better outcome [6, 7]. Achieving these targets may be influenced by many factors in a sports setting, including the surface present beneath a casualty, a factor which has been found to attenuate chest compression quality in clinical settings [8,9,10]
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