Does the Bed Frame Deflection Occur along with Mattress Deflection during In‐Hospital Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation? an Experiment Using Mechanical Devices

Objectives When we perform chest compression on a patient on a bed, the mattress and bed frame can be depressed together with the patient's chest. This study was conducted to assess whether bed frame deflection occurred during chest compressions. Methods We designed a firm bed (“bed like the ground,” BLG) to assess the bed frame deflection in the Stryker Trauma Stretcher (STS) and the ER stretcher cart (ER‐SC). The STS included a soft mattress and the ER‐SC a hard mattress. We performed 50 continuous chest compressions on the Resusci Anne Skill Reporter with CPRmeter in each experiment. The experiments were done in four settings. Test 1 included the BLG; test 2 included a mattress and backboard on each bed; test 3 included the mattress of each bed and a backboard on the BLG; and test 4 included the mattress of each bed on the BLG. We calculated the mattress and bed frame deflections using the gaps of compression depths between the values measured by Resusci Anne and CPRmeter. Results The mattress deflections of the STS and ER‐SC mattress were determined to be 11.2 and 0.67 mm, respectively. The bed frame deflection for the STS and ER‐SC were 0.95 and 5.17 mm, respectively. Conclusion The study confirms that bed frame deflection will occur when we perform chest compressions on the manikin lying on a bed. Additionally, the bed frame deflections differ depending on the type of bed. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2016;23:35‐41)