Cardiac arrest victims may be kept “stayin’ alive” with music…

A recent pilot study carried out by Matlock et al from the University of Illinois has examined the use of music as a metronome to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Several pop music songs have a tempo of 100 bpm in concordance with current CPR compression rate guidelines, with the authors choosing the aptly named “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. This prospective observational study used paired data from 15 healthcare professionals, first performing chest compressions to “Stayin’ Alive”, then retested 5 weeks later without music. The mean rate of compressions performed after 5 weeks with no music was very similar to that achieved with “Stayin’ Alive”, with a small increase of 4.1 bpm. The authors suggested that the similarity in rates was due to individuals remembering the music, although there was no initial baseline testing to strengthen this argument. Although the difference was significant between the two groups, the small increase would be unlikely to make a difference clinically in terms of survival outcome. This study implies that using music as a mental aid to remember the correct compression rate during CPR training may be helpful: testing in a larger …