Automatic Devices: The Next Frontier of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation?-Juniper Publishers
JUNIPER PUBLISHERS - OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY & CARDIOVASCULAR THERAPY Opinion To be effective, Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) requires a prompt and correct execution with compressions having the depth and the rate prescribed by the AHA. Unfortunately, the human chest dissipates most of the energy applied during the massage, consequently rescuers need to change frequently not to allow the fatigue to impair their performance. But, the recurrent interruption of the massage reduces the effectiveness of the resuscitation even further. This is the raisons d'etre of the automatic devices: to overcome the negative effect of fatigue and interruptions. The AHA does not recommend the routine use of automatic devices, because there is no statistical evidence that they improve the outcome of CPR [ 1 - 8 ]. However, statistics tell only part of the story. Forti et al. [ 9 ], for example, have described the case of a man who survived a cardiac arrest without ne...