Real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining system of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: a study protocol for a cluster parallel-group randomized controlled trial

Real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining system of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: a study protocol for a cluster parallel-group randomized controlled trial

Trials, September 2018

30236135

Akihiro Hirakawa, Toshihiro Hatakeyama, Daisuke Kobayashi, Chika Nishiyama, Akiko Kada, Takeyuki Kiguchi, Takashi Kawamura, Taku Iwami

The quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel affects patient outcomes after cardiac arrest. A CPR feedback device with an accelerometer mounted on a defibrillator can monitor the motion of the patient's sternum to display and record CPR quality in real time. To evaluate the utility of real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining using a CPR feedback device outside of the hospital, an open-label, cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted in five municipalities of Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Each EMS station within a fire department will be randomly assigned to: 1) the treatment group with real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining using the CPR feedback device (intervention group); or 2) the conventional treatment group without real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining (control group). This trial will include 2850 to 3020 patients over about 4 years. The primary outcome of the trial is 1-month favorable neurological survival, defined as cerebral performance category scale score 1 or 2. Secondary outcomes are 1-month survival, survival to hospital discharge, return of spontaneous circulation, and quality of CPR including fraction, depth, tempo, and ventilation rate. The trial will assess whether treatment monitored by the CPR feedback device, which allows for real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining using CPR quality data, outperforms conventional treatment without real-time feedback, debriefing, and retraining in terms of 1-month favorable neurological survival in cardiac arrest patients receiving CPR outside the hospital. University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) Clinical Trials Registry, UMIN000021431 . Registered on 11 March 2016.