Bahar Gholipour
CHICAGO — The familiar tune of the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” has been used for medical training for quite a few years now: It has the right beat — not to mention, the perfect title — for providing CPR’s chest compressions at the right pace to revive a patient.
The 1977 hit song has a rhythm of 103 beats per minute (bpm), which is close to the recommended rate of at least 100 chest compressions per 60 seconds that should be delivered during CPR. Plus, the song is well known enough to be useful in teaching the general public to effectively perform the lifesaving maneuver.
In fact, the American Heart Association (AHA) officially recommends that if you see someone collapse, you should “call 9-1-1 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of the classic disco song “Stayin’ Alive.” The AHA has gone as far as depicting the act in an educational music video featuring comedian and physician Ken Jeong.
But although the song seems to be the perfect soundtrack for CPR, it does have some drawbacks. Namely, it is an American song, so not everyone around the world is familiar with it. However, there are other songs with the right beat that might do just as well, according to researchers in Japan.
In a new study, Dr. Yoshihiro Yamahata, of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and his colleagues tried using new songs to instruct a group of newly hired nurses to perform CPR. The researchers presented their findings this week at the AHA meeting in Chicago.
“The quality of CPR is the key to [helping] the victim recover,” Yamahata said. “Our solution to master adequate CPR skills is to put the educational words on several famous songs with 112 bpm and 8 beats” per measure, he said.
Receiving high-quality CPR can double, or even triple, a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest outside the hospital, according to the AHA. For effective CPR, the AHA recommends delivering at least 100 chest compressions per minute, making each compression at least 2 inches (5 centimeters) deep and ensuring full “recoil,” meaning the chest wall returns to its original position between each compression.
