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| The ResQCPR System--Courtesy of the FDA |
Zoll has completed the rollout of its ResQCPR System to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on cardiac arrest patients. Seven months after the ResQCPR's FDA approval, it is now available nationwide, Zoll announced.
It is the first and only CPR device approved by the FDA to improve the chances of surviving cardiac arrest among adults experiencing nontraumatic sudden cardiac arrest, the company said in a release. Zoll and others sell automatic external defibrillators for sudden cardiac arrest, but that class of devices doesn't perform CPR.
A clinical trial showed that the ResQCPR improved one-year survival rates from out-of-hospital nontraumatic cardiac arrest by 49% over conventional CPR.
"The ResQCPR System provides intrathoracic pressure regulation (IPR) therapy, which non-invasively improves circulation to vital organs without the use of pharmaceutical or other agents during CPR by enhancing the negative pressure or vacuum in the chest," said Keith Lurie, MD, Chief Medical Officer of ZOLL Minneapolis and inventor of the ResQCPR System. "If implemented widely in the United States, the ResQCPR System could save thousands of additional lives from cardiac arrest every year."
According to a release, early adopters of the device included the municipalities of Memphis, TN, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Cleveland and Chesapeake, VA. Zoll hopes other localities adopt the device, which is now available nationwide.
The ResQCPR is expected to improve upon manual CPR and consists of two devices: the ResQPump Active Compression Decompression CPR Device, which has a handle that attaches to the patient's chest with a suction cup and has pressure gauge to assess compression depth and timing, and the ResQPod 16.0 Impedance Threshold Device, which fits onto a rescue face mask or breathing tube. The latter impedes airflow during chest compression in order to reduce chest compression and bring blood back to the heart.
The device was inspired by a toilet plunger. Inventor Dr. Keith Lurie in 1985 encountered a son who used the (nonmedical) device upon his father when manual CPR proved ineffective. "It occurred to me that not only did the plunger serve as an effective chest compressor, but the suction between the chest wall and the plunger generated significant negative pressure to enhance blood flow back to the heart," Lurie said in a statement. He is Zoll's chief medical officer.
The ResQCPR was developed by Advanced Circulatory Systems. Zoll acquired the company in January, a few months before the device's FDA approval.
- read the release