The results come from a comparison of 2,500 patients from Sweden, the Netherlands, and England who received assistance with an automated external defibrillator (AED). The patients were then also treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), either performed manually or given by a machine.

After observing patients for six months, researchers from Uppsala University determined that both methods were equally effective, Sveriges Radio (SR) reported.

The results mean that county health authorities in Sweden that have equipped ambulances with the compression machines, known as Lucas, should keep the machines in use.

While the professor who led the study, Sten Rubertsson of Uppsala University, cautioned that emergency responders should continue to practice the art of manual CPR, he explained that the machine may be better suited to some situations, such as when an ambulance is transporting a patient at high speed.

“It can be really hard to give manual chest compressions during an ambulance ride because you have to stand in back with the ambulances may be going 100 km/h,” he told SR.

“It’s risky and there have been accidents where ambulance workers have been injured.”

TT/The Local/dl

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