STOPGAP
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Study of cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedures thought to generate aerosol particles
IRAS ID
304724
Contact name
Julia Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hertfordshire
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 6 days
Research summary
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been concern for the safety of first responders performing life-saving treatments on patients who may be COVID-19 positive. It's thought that certain actions (such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation “CPR”) may cause patients to exhale larger amounts of aerosols. This could increase the risk of contracting COVID-19 from the patient. For this reason, new advice was introduced to improve infection control including the greater use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and practical advice such as putting wet towels on a patient’s face. These additional measures can cause delays before patients receive life-saving treatment. Evidence indicates new measures may have lowered the chance of surviving when a person's heart suddenly stops (cardiac arrest).
There is debate regarding which procedures pose a risk to first responders. It is generally agreed that current evidence is of low quality and so first responders find themselves with a dilemma. On the one hand, they could opt to use low performance PPE which can be put on quickly but increases risk of contracting COVID-19. In contrast, a higher level of PPE may reduce the risk of infection but could cause delays that might reduce the chance of their patient surviving. To put this delay into context, there is a 7 – 10 % decrease in survival for each minute that CPR is delayed.
We will study six procedures involved with standard CPR to determine if these cause an increase in aerosols exhaled by patients. We will collect this information when CPR is performed (1) out-of-hospital and (2) in an Emergency Department (ED) to determine if the risk level differs between the two environments. We aim to conduct each procedure on a maximum of 36 patients in ED and 36 patients in the out-of-hospital setting.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0027
Date of REC Opinion
15 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion