Researchers at Michigan Technological University (Houghton, USA) developed the CPRMattress, a mattress with a special insert to address a longstanding and critical problem in CPR on standard hospital mattresses. Containing 15 or more centimeters of foam, standard mattresses are pliable and soft; when pushing down to administer CPR, there is no reciprocal support, and the forces directed are dissipated through the mattress, not the body of the patient lying on it. To remedy this problem, the new mattress insert offers a simple solution: with the push a button, the air is sucked out of the pliable foam, making it firmer. Because the mattress insert starts deflating immediately after the vacuum is turned on, only one person is needed to initiate chest compressions, which begin while the mattress deflates. Moreover, because only the top half of the mattress deflates, it automatically lowers the chest and head relative to the legs, increasing blood volume to the heart and blood flow to the brain. The mattress and mattress insert are products of CPRMattress (Hancock, MI, USA).

In a study of various compression tests at incremental time periods, the researchers found that when measuring compression forces on a manikin, a standard mattress transmits only 43% of the CPR load to the heart; with a board underneath the mattress (the current common practice), effectiveness increased to 52%; and with the new insert, 81% of the compression load reached the heart. Furthermore, the new design reached and surpassed the compression efficiency of a headboard within 10 seconds. The study describing the new mattress insert was published in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine.

“I think this has incredible potential. It's not a terribly expensive piece of equipment, and it's not mechanically complicated,” said Jim Spence, cardiopulmonary director at Portage Health Hospital (Hancock, MI, USA), where the insert was tested. “A backboard is simple, too, until you try to put it behind a 300-pound [136-kg] patient. With this, you just push a button. The changes are probably small but when you're doing CPR, every little bit counts. Time and blood are brain cells.”

Related Links:
Michigan Technological University
CPRMattress
Portage Health Hospital