EMS Products Article

July 10, 2008

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Houston EMS to test new CPR device

The Houston Chronicle

Photo Zoll Medical
The AutoPulse device is being tested by Houston EMS crews.

HOUSTON — The AutoPulse is a battery-powered device that might revolutionize the way emergency medical technicians attempt to revive patients whose hearts have stopped. Houston is one of the sites for a worldwide study to determine if the device is more effective than the standard procedure that involves medics manually pounding on the chests of stricken adults.

For the next several years, some of the Houston Fire Department EMS crews will be equipped with 160 of the $17,000 devices manufactured by the Massachusetts-based Zoll Medical Corp. and certified safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In emergency situations some patients will be assisted by the machine while others will receive manual CPR. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center will work with EMS personnel to compile the results.

The study will compare the machine's performance in reviving patients to the survival rates of those receiving manual CPR in a study funded by Zoll over the next two or three years. Even if the statistics are comparable, the AutoPulse would be judged the winner because it is easier to administer than the physically demanding, rib-breaking manual technique.

The AutoPulse is easy to use. A victim is laid on the frame of the lightweight machine and an automated strap directed by a computer rhythmically compresses the chest to restore heart function and blood flow. It is ideal for situations where patients must be immediately transported to a medical facility and continuous manual CPR is difficult to maintain.

Because subjects of the study will be unconscious and unable to give approval for their participation, federal regulations require a complex series of steps before the study can be initiated. These include getting favorable reviews from the ethics boards of local medical institutions and conducting public meetings to solicit responses from community members. The Houston study has successfully completed those phases and is now in the final step, public notification, before launching in coming months.

Dr. David Persse, the medical director of the Houston EMS and an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine, has high expectations for the AutoPulse but wants to see supporting statistics from the study before committing to purchasing the expensive devices. He says the early results could have a bearing on whether the study runs to completion.

"If it looks like the device is really making a huge positive impact, it then becomes unethical to do [CPR] the old fashioned way," Persse said. "Similarly, if it looks like the device is doing worse, they'll stop the study."

Houstonians should be rooting for a favorable outcome for the AutoPulse. After all, any one of us could be just a heartbeat away from needing such lifesaving assistance.