• Soo Hoon Lee, Kyuseok Kim, Jae Hyuk Lee, Taeyun Kim, Changwoo Kang, Chanjong Park, Joonghee Kim, You Hwan Jo, Joong Eui Rhee, and Dong Hoon Kim.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea Department of Emergency Medicine, Gyeongsang National University Hospital, Jinju, Gyeongsangnamdo, Republic of Korea.
• Emerg Med J. 2014 Aug 1;31(8):645-8.

ObjectivesThe quality of chest compressions along with defibrillation is the cornerstone of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which is known to improve the outcome of cardiac arrest. We aimed to investigate the relationship between the compression rate and other CPR quality parameters including compression depth and recoil.MethodsA conventional CPR training for lay rescuers was performed 2 weeks before the 'CPR contest'. CPR anytime training kits were distributed to respective participants for self-training on their own in their own time. The participants were tested for two-person CPR in pairs. The quantitative and qualitative data regarding the quality of CPR were collected from a standardised check list and SkillReporter, and compared by the compression rate.ResultsA total of 161 teams consisting of 322 students, which includes 116 men and 206 women, participated in the CPR contest. The mean depth and rate for chest compression were 49.0±8.2 mm and 110.2±10.2/min. Significantly deeper chest compression depths were noted at rates over 120/min than those at any other rates (47.0±7.4, 48.8±8.4, 52.3±6.7, p=0.008). Chest compression depth was proportional to chest compression rate (r=0.206, p<0.001), but there were significantly more incomplete chest recoils at the rate of over 120/min than at any other rates (9.8%, 6.3%, 25.6%, p=0.011).ConclusionsThe study showed conflicting results in the quality of chest compression including chest compression depth and chest recoil by chest compression rate. Further evaluation regarding the upper limit of the chest compression rate is needed to ensure complete full chest wall recoil while maintaining an adequate chest compression depth.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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