Manual ventilation quality is improved with a real-time visual feedback system during simulated resuscitation

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
• Medical Simulation

Background:

• Manual ventilations during cardiac arrest often deviate from recommended guidelines.
• While real-time feedback improves chest compression quality, its impact on ventilation parameters is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if a real-time visual feedback system enhances manual ventilation quality (rate and volume) during simulated cardiac arrest.

Main Methods:

• Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) performed CPR on a manikin in two 8-minute rounds: one without feedback, one with feedback enabled.
• Ventilation rate and tidal volume were measured using a novel differential pressure-based flow sensor.
• Paired t tests were used for data analysis.

Main Results:

• With feedback, the percentage of ventilations within the target rate significantly increased from 41% to 71%.
• Ventilations within the target volume significantly improved from 31% to 79% with feedback.
• The combined percentage of ventilations meeting both target rate and volume increased from 10% to 63% with feedback.

Conclusions:

• A novel visual feedback system substantially improved ventilation quality during simulated CPR.
• Real-time feedback shows promise for guiding ventilations within guidelines during cardiac arrest.
• Further investigation in human resuscitation is warranted.