New research presented at the 2025 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid, Spain, has found a more effective way to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in microgravity, which causes the weightlessness astronauts experience in space.
New research presented at the 2025 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid, Spain, has found a more effective way to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in microgravity, which causes the weightlessness astronauts experience in space.
The study found that a type of automatic chest compression, carried out by a standard mechanical piston device, reached the depth needed to be effective, while the current CPR methods recommended for space travel are undereffective regarding this depth criteria.
Treating cardiac arrest during spaceflight is challenging because both the rescuer and the patient are floating due to microgravity. The current NASA emergency protocol for the International Space Station recommends the hand-stand method of CPR, where the rescuer performs a handstand on the patient’s chest with their legs pressing on the side of the spaceship to create the pressure needed for chest compressions.
«We tested different ways of giving chest compressions aboard a ‘flying laboratory’ which recreated the microgravity conditions that astronauts experience in space. Use of a particular type of automatic chest compression device was the only method that gave the depth that is recommended by international resuscitation guidelines to keep blood flowing to the brain in a real-life cardiac arrest. We hope that our findings will be incorporated into the next guidelines for treating cardiac arrest in space», explained Nathan Reynette from the Cardiology Department at Université de Lorraine—CHRU de Nancy.
The research was conducted in a «flying laboratory» onboard a modified civil aircraft, the only one of its kind in Europe, called the A310 Air Zero G at the Center National d’Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency.
