CPR in the room could be made more easily by chest compression machines

Microgravity makes it difficult to perform simple tasks such as eating, using the toilet and showering, so it’s no wonder it is an extremely requesting procedure to perform CPR on someone whose heart stops beating the room. But a mechanical device could do the job more effectively, suggests tests performed in simulated microgravity.

On the ground, one’s weight and strength are used to compress the patient’s chest. But in the room, things are different as the weight becomes almost meaningless.

NASA’s CPR protocol for the International Space Station requires you to wedge yourself and the patient between two hard surfaces, make a handstand on your chest and push with your legs to give compression.

In search of a better way, Nathan Reynette tested at the University of Lorraine in France and his colleagues various CPR methods in an Airbus A310 flying parabolic curves, a maneuver that creates 22 seconds of microgravity. They also tested three different breast compression machine, often used in curly environmental on the ground, such as the back of the air ambulance helicopters.

All the methods we applied to a exercise dummy and the depth of breast compression achieves carefully monitored. The European Resuscitation Council says that a depth of at least 50 millimeters is needed to be effective: In the tests, the best mechanical unit achieved 53 millimeters, but the handstand method achieved only 34.5 millimeters.

The research will be presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid on August 31st. Reynette and his colleagues said in a press release that they hope their findings will affect Future Guideele on CPR in space.

Aaron Parkhurst at University College London says the current method of CPR in space is difficult to perform and mature for improvement. “If you did this in zero gravity or in a space station for some reason, things have probably gone very wrong and the prognosis is probably not great,” he says. “This new method seems to tackle it.”

As space travel becomes more common and astronauts are not all very selected and extremely fit people, the probability of heart events in orbit will be greater, says Parkhurst. “Leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, just stressed in these moments in the rocket, is extremely harsh on the heart. And it is extremely hard to live in space.

A NASA spokesman said in a Stément: “Manual compressions continue to be the current CPR procedure aboard the International Space Station. NASA reduces the risk of needing CPR through extensive medical screening of astronauts and robust technique.