End-tidal carbon dioxide output in manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation versus active compression-decompression device during prehospital quality controlled resuscitation: a case series study.

Background: Active compression-decompression (ACD) devices have enhanced end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO) output in experimental cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) studies. However, the results in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients have shown inconsistent outcomes, and earlier studies lacked quality control of CPR attempts. We compared manual CPR with ACD-CPR by measuring ETCO output using an audiovisual feedback defibrillator to ensure continuous high quality resuscitation attempts.