Are AED Shocks Safe During Hands-On Compressions?

The Research
Wampler D, Kharod C, Bolleter S, et al. A randomized control hands-on defibrillation study—Barrier use evaluation. Resuscitation. 2016;103:37–40.
The Science
The authors of this study decided to test previous research that indicated there's no leakage of energy through the gloved hand compressing on the chest during defibrillation in a more scientific manner.
They placed a partition between the CPR provider and two automated external defibrillators (AEDs), one of which was connected to non-embalmed fresh cadavers with standard AED pads and the other connected to a test load. The CPR provider was randomly assigned to compress the chest either bare-handed, wearing either a single layer or double layer of nitrile gloves, bare-handed over a neoprene pad, wearing firefighter gloves, or while using a manual CPR device (ResQPUMP).
They then randomly defibrillated the cadaver with 360 J or dumped the charge into the test load. They only used 30 J for bare-handed CPR. The CPR provider was asked to indicate whether or not they felt the shock and rate its severity on a scale from 1–10.
Of the 10 subjects who performed CPR, all detected the 30 J shocks during bare-handed compressions. Of the 500 shocks delivered during the experiment, five (1%) of the real shocks were detected: one while wearing the single layer of nitrile gloves, three with the double-layer nitrile gloves and with the neoprene pad. No shocks were detected with the fire gloves or the CPR device. All th...

Source: JEMS Patient Care - November 1, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Keith Wesley, MD, FACEP Tags: Cardiac & Resuscitation Columns Source Type: news