Development of a diagnostic glove for unobtrusive measurement of chest compression force and depth during neonatal CPR

Optimizing chest compression (CC) performance during neonatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is critical to improving survival outcomes since current clinical protocols often achieve only a fraction of the native cardiovascular perfusion. This study presents the development of a diagnostic tool to unobtrusively measure the CC depth and force during neonatal CPR using sensors mounted on a glove platform. The performance of the glove was evaluated by infant manikin tests using the two-thumb (TT) and two-finger (TF) methods of CC during simulated, unventilated neonatal CPR. The TT method yielded maximum CC depths and forces of as much as 25.7 ± 3.2 mm and 35.9 ± 2.2 N while the TF method produced CC depths and forces of as much as 21.6 ± 2.2 mm and 23.7 ± 2.9 N. These results are consistent with clinical findings which suggest that TT compression is more effective than TF compression since it produces greater CC depths and forces.