Dispatcher-assisted telephone cardiopulmonary resuscitation using a French-language compression-only protocol in volunteers with or without prior life support training: A randomized trial

Objectives

Due to the recent interest in hands-only protocols for dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the lack of any validated algorithms in French, our primary objective was to evaluate a new French-language protocol in terms of its efficacy to help previously untrained volunteers in performing basic life support efforts of appropriate quality, and secondarily to investigate its potential utility in subjects with previous training.

Methods

Untrained volunteers were recruited among adults in a public movie centre and previously trained volunteers among undergraduate nursing students. Participants were randomly assigned to ‘phone CPR’ versus ‘no phone CPR’ by drawing sets of envelopes. Primary outcome measures were the results of the Cardiff evaluation test; the secondary measures were global scoring of a complete 5 min period of CPR, in a manikin model of cardiac arrest.

Results

Out of 146 volunteers assessed for eligibility, 36 previously untrained candidates declined participation. 110 participants, distributed into four groups, completed the study: the previously untrained non-guided group (group A, n = 30), the previously untrained guided group (group B, n = 30), the previously trained non-guided group (group C, n = 25) and the previously trained guided group (group D, n = 25).Results of the Cardiff test and global evaluation of CPR performance revealed a significant improvement in group B as compared with group A, approaching the level of the group C. Previously trained guided bystanders had the best CPR scores, notably because of an improvement in the quality of airway management.

Conclusion

When used by dispatchers, this new French-language algorithm offers the opportunity to help previously untrained bystanders initiate CPR. The same protocol may serve to guide volunteers with prior basic life support training to reach their best CPR performance.