Continuous femoral pulse check for cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an improvement compared with intermittent carotid pulse check.
Description
The reliability of manual pulse checks has been questioned but is still recommended in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines. The aim is to compare the 10-second carotid pulse check (CPC) between cycles with the continuous femoral pulse check (CoFe PuC) in CPR, and to propose a better location to shorten the interruption times for pulse check. CoFe PuC has a good cutoff time and provides effective and quick results compared to the CPC cutoff time, which shortens the interruption time for CPR. CoFe PuC should be recommended as a new and useful method in the CPR guidelines.
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Steps to reproduce
Emergency department assistants, specialists and data entry personnel were included in this study. Before the study, the team received training on 6-hour femoral and carotid pulse checks in the Simulaids@ STAT Manikin (Simulaids Ltd, Leicestershire, UK). During this training, everyone was taught to constantly check the femoral pulse when compressions started and only moved away from the patient if shock occurred. For the carotid pulse, a person was asked to check only at 10-second pause intervals as in the ALS guideline. A controller emergency specialist checked the compatibility of the palpable pulse with the waves on the monitor. For patients in whom ROSC was achieved once the recording stopped, the same patients who underwent repeat CPR were not recorded. The cut-off time was the time until a pulse was detectable or not at the pulse check.