Music for CPR

This may get you a bit more excited for your next ACLS recertification. And if you lived in the 1970s or are a fan of disco, you really will like what you’re about to read. True to its name, it seems that the catchy and well-known Bee Gees tune, “Stayin Alive” might actually help save lives! In a small study from the University of Illinois medical school, doctors and students maintained close to the ideal number of chest compressions (100 per minute) doing CPR while listening to this song. In this study, 15 students and doctors first performed CPR on mannequins while listening to the song on iPods. They were asked to time chest compressions with the song’s beat. Five weeks later, the drill was repeated without the music but the study subjects were told to think of the song while doing compressions. The average number of compressions the first time was 109 per minute; the second time it was 113. The study’s author, Dr. David Matlock, points out that a few extra compressions per minute is better than too few. He notes that using this song may provide a useful CPR training tool as this life-saving measure is often wrongly performed because people tend to administer compressions too slowly and because people are afraid of not keeping the proper rhythm. This study will be presented at the American College of Emergency Physicians meeting in Chicago this month. What’s likely to follow are larger, more definitive studies with real patients or untrained people. Yes, my friends, just one more reason to love those Gibb brothers.