Chest compressions have remained one of the most visible and effective components of prehospital resuscitation, dating back to the inception of modern emergency medical services (EMS).

Although the idea and technique of chest compressions have not changed much over time, methods of mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have become increasingly available to prehospital providers.

From their origins in the 1960s as inpatient piston-driven machines, mechanical CPR devices have become smaller and more easily used outside of hospital settings.

These newer devices are quite costly to EMS agencies and some require single-use consumables – such as bands, batteries and suction cups – to be purchased throughout the lifetime of the device, only further increasing the cost.

Based on our findings, we suggest that the use of mechanical CPR be revisited in the prehospital setting as a tool only in specific circumstances when manual CPR is not feasible.

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