Feasibility of a Modified Strategy for 2-Rescuer Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) requires effective chest compressions and ventilations to circulate and oxygenate blood. It has been established that a 2-handed mask seal is superior when providing bag-valve-mask (BVM) ventilations. However a 1-handed technique remains the standard with which health care providers are trained to perform 2-rescuer CPR.

We sought to determine if a modified 2-rescuer CPR technique that incorporates a 2-handed mask seal during ventilations can be accomplished without compromising chest compression quality during a simulated cardiac arrest.

Medical student volunteers were divided into an "intervention" arm, with 1 rescuer creating a 2-handed mask seal and the second rescuer performing chest compressions followed by that second rescuer squeezing the BVM bag to deliver ventilations during compression pauses, and a "control" arm, in which standard 2-rescuer CPR was performed. Both arms received a brief CPR refresher following a standard script. The 2 rescuer teams then performed 2 rounds of CPR on a manikin while being video recorded. Data were collected from real-time evaluation and post hoc video analysis.

Forty-seven pairs of students enrolled in the study. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control arms for median (interquartile range [IQR]) compression fraction (72% [69.5-75.7%] vs. 73.2% [69.1-76.1%]; p = 1.0), median time to complete 2 rounds of CPR (207.8 s [198.5-222.9 s] vs. 214.7 s [201.3-219.5 s]; p = 0.625), median hands-off time (49.8 s [46.2-63.0 s] vs. 55.4 s [50.4-65.2 s]; p = 0.278), or median time for 30 compressions (15.2 s [14.3-15.9 s] vs. 15.4 s [14.6-16.3 s]; p = 0.452).

Two-rescuer CPR incorporating a 2-handed face mask seal can be performed effectively without impacting chest compression quality during simulated cardiac arrest.