Cell Phone Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Audio Instructions When Needed by Lay Rescuers: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Study objective: Given the ubiquitous presence of cellular telephones, we seek to evaluate the extent to which prerecorded audio cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) instructions delivered by a cell telephone will improve the quality of CPR provided by untrained and trained lay rescuers Methods: We randomly assigned both previously CPR trained and untrained volunteers to perform CPR on a manikin for 3 minutes with or without audio assistance from a cell telephone programmed to provide CPR instructions. We measured CPR quality metrics-pauses (ie, no flow time), compression rate (minute), depth (millimeters), and hand placement (percentage correct) across the 4 groups defined by being either CPR trained or untrained and receiving or not receiving cell telephone CPR instructions. Results: There was no difference in CPR measures for participants who had or had not received previous CPR training. Participants using the cell telephone aid performed better compression rate (100/minute [95% confidence interval (Cl) 97 to 103/minute] versus 44/minute [95% Cl 38 to 50/minute]), compression depth (41 mm [95% Cl 38 to 44 mm] versus 31 mm [95% Cl 28 to 34 mm]), hand placement (97% [95% Cl 94% to 100%] versus 75% [95% Cl 68% to 83%] correct), and fewer pauses (74 seconds [95% Cl 72 to 76 seconds] versus 89 seconds [95% Cl 80 to 98 seconds]) compared with participants without the cell telephone aid. Conclusion: A simple audio program that can be made available for cell telephones increases the quality of bystander CPR in a manikin simulation. [Ann Emerg Med 2010,55-538-543.]