Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation vs conventional cardiopulmonary resusc

The Article:

Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation vs conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the LINC randomized trial.

The Idea:

To determine whether continued mechanical chest compressions with simultaneous defibrillation improves out of hospital cardiac arrest outcomes when compared to standard of care ACLS.

The Study:

-Multicenter randomized clinical trial of 2589 adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest randomized to either mechanical chest compressions with the LUCAS device or traditional ACLS guidelines

-Primary endpoint = four hour survival

-Secondary end points = survival up to 6 months with good neurological outcome using the Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) score.

The Findings:

No significant difference was found between the two study groups with regards to the primary or secondary end points.

No significant device failures.

The Takeaway:

The LUCAS device may not be beneficial in field cardiopulmonary resuscitation if manual quality CPR is provided. LUCAS may be better suited for in house CPR under more controlled settings.

#EMS