Nellie no life-saver

Thursday November 3rd, 2011

The jingly song Nellie the Elephant should no longer be used to train in heart resuscitation - nor should any other music, researchers say.

Malcolm Woollard, of Coventry, UK, claims to have tested enough songs and music to be confident that not one is suitable for training.

The problem, he says, is that trainees use the music to guide not just the rate of compression but the depth - and generally the results are too shallow.

The best fit he has found is a piece of music called Disco Science.

This lead to 82 per cent of volunteers getting their rate of compression correct - with the range of 100 to 120 a minute. But more than a third of compressions were too shallow, he said.

Nellie the Elephant provides a compression rate of 100 a minute - but not the right depth which should be five to six centimetres.

Writing in the Emergency Medicine Journal, Professor Woollard, of Coventry University, UK, said: "When considering the combined importance of correct depth and rate, the authors are unconvinced that music provides any benefit in improving the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation compared with a metronome or audible feedback, suggesting that that this interesting but unproductive area of resuscitation research should be discontinued."

Emergency Medicine Journal November 3 2011 doi 10.1136/emermed-2011-200187

Tags: A&E | General Health | UK News

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