Should You Remove Clothing Before CPR?

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cpr remove clothingNo, not your clothing, the casualty’s. Keep yours on.

A recent study has investigated whether, when performing CPR, it is better to remove a casualty’s clothing or to simply just leave them on. The researchers conducted a simulated trial exploring the how the presence or absence of clothing, affected CPR and chest compression quality.

The findings showed that there was little effect on compression quality between whether a first aider removed clothing or left it on the casualty. For both methods, the rescuers delivered compressions to a similiar rate and depth.

Not suprisingly, what the results did show however, was that removing a casualty’s clothing added a delay before CPR was provided. For the group that removed a casualty’s clothing, there was an additional 30 seconds before compressions where administered.

This study supports the fact that, removing a casualty’s clothing adds an unwanted delay for lay people/bystanders for no real benefits to CPR chest compressions quality.

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