L. Wik et Pa. Steen, THE VENTILATION COMPRESSION RATIO INFLUENCES THE EFFECTIVENESS OF 2-RESCUER ADVANCED CARDIAC LIFE-SUPPORT ON A MANNEQUIN/, Resuscitation, 31(2), 1996, pp. 113-119
Time is of crucial importance during advanced cardiac life support (AC
LS). Several parallel tasks have to be performed more or less simultan
eously. The guidelines recommend a ventilation/compression ratio of 1:
5 in two-rescuer ACLS. This was compared with respect to time and CPR
quality to an alternative method of a 2:15 ratio performed by one of t
he two rescuers freeing one rescuer to concentrate on other tasks than
ventilation and chest compression. Seventeen paramedic students were
trained in pairs in ACLS according to the European Resuscitation Counc
il guidelines using an Ambu Mega Code trainer manikin. From a starting
point of asystole paramedics were required to perform ECG analysis, i
ntubation, i.v. access, adrenalin and atropine injection, flushing of
the drug bolus before conversion to ventricular fibrillation followed
by defibrillation in addition to ventilation and chest compression. Un
paired two-tailed Student t-test and the Fisher's exact test were used
for statistical analysis, with a P-value less than 0.05 regarded as s
ignificant. It took significantly less time to perform successful CPR
with the 2:15 ratio compared to the 1:5 ratio. The quality of the vent
ilations and compressions performed were not significantly different b
etween 2:15 and 1:5 ratio. When two rescuers are performing ACLS, the
2:15 ratio method appears to be time saving vs. the 1:5. This could po
tentially improve the outcome after cardiac arrest.