Design and development of a cardiopulmonary resuscitation mattress.

This study introduces the design and construction of a mattress insert to produce more effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The mattress insert deflates, making the mattress insert a rigid surface. Using a device that administers a constant compression depth onto a manikin, we were able to show that our mattress insert more effectively directed the compressive force to the manikin compared to the current practice of using a headboard on top of a mattress. The mattress insert produced a statistically significant increase in the compression efficiency when compared to the current practice of using the headboard (81% vs. 53%). Because the mattress insert starts deflating immediately after the vacuum is turned on, 1 person is needed to initiate chest compressions. Compression begins while the mattress deflates. Running compression tests at incremental time periods, we found that our design reaches and surpasses the compression efficiency when using a headboard in 10 seconds.