CPR Devices

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April 13, Indianapolis Star - (Indiana; National) Devices will

'revolutionize' CPR. A recent study suggests two new devices used

together while performing CPR on a cardiac arrest victim can have a

dramatic effect on survival rates. Patients treated with the devices,

one of which is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA), had a 53 percent better chance of survival than those who

underwent standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They also suffered

less brain damage. The two devices, one of which resembles a plunger,

work together to increase blood circulation during the life-saving CPR

procedure. While CPR can save someone's life, it normally provides only

about 15 percent of normal blood flow, a professor of emergency medicine

at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee said. The two devices

help increase that flow. The first, called the ResQPod, attaches to a

facemask or endotracheal tube. It then prevents air from entering the

chest, creating a vacuum that increases blood pressure, which helps the

body maintain nearly normal levels of blood flow to the brain. The

ResQPump, not yet FDA-approved, further improves blood flow. It creates

suction over the chest, which also brings more blood into the heart.

Overall, 47 out of 813 people in the control group compared with 75 of

840 in the intervention survived to leave the hospital in good

neurological condition. It will likely be a year to 18 months before the

FDA decides whether to OK the pump, the director of clinical marketing

for Advanced Circulatory Systems said. The pump is already in use in

many other countries.