Improving the quality of CPR in the community.

Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is important for survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, recent research indicates that the quality of CPR is an important and often overlooked factor affecting survival. Individual factors, training, awareness, technique and rescuer fatigue may influence the quality of CPR. Quality components of CPR include rate, ratio, depth and ventilation-compression ratio. The new 2010 CPR guidelines advocate a ratio of compressions to ventilations of 30:2, with a rate of at least 100 compressions per minute. Depth of compression should be at least 5 cm. Rescuers should allow complete recoil of the chest. Locally, limited information is available regarding the quality of CPR being performed for OHCA. Strategies to improve the quality of CPR include research, training, education as well as incorporating appropriate technologies that measure and feedback the quality of CPR. These technologies are at the heart of recent advances, as they now make it feasible to provide routine feedback to rescuers providing CPR, through the integration of feedback devices into training equipment, defibrillators and standalone CPR assist devices.