The effectiveness of bystander CPR in an animal model

James W. Hoekstra, Kathy Rinnert, Peter Van Ligten, Robert Neumar, Howard A. Werman, Charles G. Brown

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Several clinical studies have yielded conflicting results in examining the effectiveness of bystander CPR (BCPR). The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the effectiveness of BCPR in an animal model of cardiac arrest and resuscitation. Ten swine were instrumented for hemodynamic and regional blood flow measurements with tracer microspheres. After two minutes of ventricular fibrillation (VF), the animals received eight minutes of either BCPR (five) or no-bystander CPR (NBCPR; five). Defibrillation was then attempted in both groups. If unsuccessful, CPR was begun and epinephrine 0.02 mg/kg was administered. Defibrillation was attempted again three and one-half minutes after epinephrine administration. Regional myocardial and cerebral blood flows were measured 30 seconds and five and one-half minutes after initiation of BCPR and one minute after epinephrine administration. In the BCPR group, myocardial blood flow was initially 29.0 ± 33.2 and decreased to 15.0 ± 21.5 mL/min/100 g during the last two and one-half minutes of BCPR. Cortical cerebral blood flow was initially 2.0 ± 2.8 and fell to 0.6 ± 0.8 mL/min/100 g during the last two and one-half minutes of BCPR. There were no statistical differences in myocardial blood flow and cerebral blood flow between the initial or late stages of BCPR (P > .14). There were no statistical differences in myocardial blood flow and cerebral blood flow between BCPR and NBCPR groups after epinephrine administration (P > .09). There were no successful resuscitations in either group before or after epinephrine administration. We conclude that BCPR is not effective at maintaining adequate myocardial blood flow or cerebral blood flow in this ten-minute cardiac arrest model. Further study is needed to discern the effectiveness of BCPR in this model with shorter arrest durations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)881-886
Number of pages6
JournalAnnals of emergency medicine
Volume19
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1990

Keywords

  • CPR
  • bystander

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Emergency Medicine

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