Introduction
Sudden cardiac arrest remains one of the most serious problems in cardiology today. It should also be admitted that this problem is still too far from its solution. Despite the widespread introduction of modern resuscitation methods at the end of the twentieth century, there was no expected significant increase in patient survival. The key limiting factors for ensuring a successful reduction of preventable deaths due to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are rescuer fatigue, the lack of proper CPR equipment, defective delivery of CPR by bystanders, and immediate medical care delay (Dziekan et al., 2017). Thus, it is important to seek out new opportunities and possibilities in the field.
Indirect Heart Massage as a Main Method of CPR
In conditions when heart rate monitoring is not available, the sudden cardiac arrest should be diagnosed within no more than 10 seconds by the following signs: lack of consciousness, lack of normal breathing or agonal breathing, and lack of pulse in the carotid artery. Subsequently, CPR means should be performed once the cardiac arrest is confirmed. Indirect heart massage is the basis for the provision of resuscitation measures, both for trained medical personnel and untrained people.
Despite the fact that there are different approaches to cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as well as various alternative and auxiliary treatment options, all experts agree on the importance of conducting timely and high-quality indirect heart massage. It provides a mechanical effect on the heart after its stopping in order to restore cardiac activity and maintain continuous blood flow until the heart resumes its work. Chest compressions allow the person performing the CPR to maintain a small but sufficient effective blood flow in the vessels of the heart and brain.
Use of Automatic CPR Tools
Currently, there is an assortment of mechanical CPR devices in the medical device market. The need for extensive CPR equipment is quite acute, seeing as the timely and correct use of defibrillators leads to a significant increase in survival after cardiac arrest. The range of devices offered is very diverse, but usually, not much is known about the existence of other mechanical devices that help in performing high-quality CPR. Meanwhile, there is a number of mechanical devices that facilitate the work of resuscitators, maintain high modern standards of emergency care, and allow mechanical chest compressions. One of such systems refers to an automatic cardiopulmonary resuscitation unit, which is a battery-powered chest compression device for patients with sudden cardiac arrest.
Advantages of Automatic CPR Tools
The use of automatic CPR devices by emergency teams or ICU staff can improve the quality of CPR significantly, primarily by providing high-quality chest compressions. Moreover, they also reduce the effect of fatigue, which is typical for manual chest compressions, and which inevitably affects the quality and effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Stress injury rates that are typical for CPR, are also reduced with the use of automatic devices. Transporting a cardiac arrest patient to a specialist ward or to the hospital is also often accompanied by forced pauses in CPR, which carries a potential risk to the patient. Automatic devices move with the patient from the scene to the ambulance car and continue to perform effective chest compressions. This allows to avoid a decrease in pressure in the coronary vessels and maintain adequate blood circulation in the patient during transport. Directly at the scene of the accident or in a moving ambulance, the staff can perform continuous cardiac massage and, in parallel, carry out all other emergency measures. Finally, these devices eliminate the need for additional personnel in performing CPR, reducing crowds at the scene of an accident.
Disadvantages of Automatic CPR Tools
At the same time, automatic CPR devices are not without a number of disadvantages. First of all, it should be noted that they do not provide a high enough frequency of chest compressions – only 80 per minute, which does not meet modern CPR requirements. In addition, such devices usually cover almost the entire front surface of the chest of an adult, which significantly complicates the use of an external defibrillator, while that defibrillation with minimal time delay is one of the basic requirements of modern CPR.
Use of Drones in CPR
Drones are suitable for delivering a wide variety of items, but few experimenters have taken the risk of using them in real, field conditions to provide medical care, such as in cases of heart attacks. In the event that a person has a heart attack, brain death and subsequent death can occur within just a few minutes, so every second counts. At the same time, the chances of surviving outside the hospital are small, but even non-professional cardiopulmonary resuscitation with the additional use of an automatic defibrillator can seriously increase them. In this case, the means of delivery of the necessary equipment can play a huge role. However, today, the major barriers preventing a widespread integration of such drone technologies include costs, legal elements, policies, as well as technical issues (Van de Voorde et al., 2017). It is clear that technology still has a long way to improve.
Advantages of Using Drones in CPR
In case of heart rhythm disturbances, it is extremely important to provide qualified medical care on time. According to different studies, in the event of cardiac arrest outside a medical facility, on average, only one patient in ten survives. It is believed that every minute without skilled first aid treatment reduces the chance of survival by 10 percent, so first aid and fast delivery of a defibrillator are critical parameters to save lives. Air drones are the solution to the problem of delivering CPR tools in time for successful resuscitation. The defibrillator will analyze the heart rhythms, store the data for the hospital, and, if necessary, produce a series of shocks in accordance with international guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Conclusion
Summarizing the slides, it should be concluded that the future of effective CPR means lies in using automatic devices that allow effective chest compressions in accordance with current methodological guidelines for CPR. Moreover, the drones also proved to be a valuable asset in terms of delivering CPR on time. However, the automatic tools cannot replace a qualified resuscitation doctor as they have significant limits to their effectiveness. Still, they present an alternative or additional opportunity for high-quality chest compressions and can improve the quality of resuscitation means in the future.
References
Dreamstimepoint. (2021). Drone quadrocopter transporting box with AED. Dreamstime. Web.
Dziekan, M., Jubaer, S., Sell, V., Manda, S., Aboelzahab, A., Velastegui, S. R., Mejia-Viana, J. C., & Uquillas, J. A. (2017). Design of a low-cost, portable, and automated cardiopulmonary resuscitation device for emergency scenarios in Ecuador. 2017 IEEE Second Ecuador Technical Chapters Meeting (ETCM), 1-6. Web.
Motortion. (2021). Male paramedic doing indirect heart massage, colleague using the tablet for records. Dreamstime. Web.
Phapnam, N. (2021). Automatic compression machine CPR. Dreamstime. Web.
Van de Voorde, P., Gautama, S., Momont, A., Ionescu, C. M., De Paepe, P., & Fraeyman, N. (2017). The drone ambulance [A-UAS]: Golden bullet or just a blank? Resuscitation, 116, 46–48. Web.