European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Quality of dispatcher-assisted vs. automated external defibrillator-guided cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a randomised simulation trial.
Quality of hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an important determinant of resuscitation outcome for cardiac arrest patients cared for by lay rescuers. We designed a simulation trial to assess and compare the quality of CPR among untrained lay people under two different scenarios: automated external defibrillator (AED)-guided and dispatcher-assisted CPR. ⋯ Although guided CPR helps untrained people to initiate resuscitation manoeuvres, the quality of CPR was poor in both groups. Telephone guidance improved the proportion of compressions that achieved adequate chest compression and recoil but did not optimise the compression rate.