- Temple EM
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.