Patent ID: 7077814

Claim:
A method of performing chest compressions on a patient in cardiac arrest, said method comprising the steps of: providing a chest compression device comprising: a chest compression means for compressing the chest of the patient; a controller for operating chest compression means, said controller being operable to operate the chest compression means to compress the chest to variable thresholds; and a biological parameter sensor for sensing a biological parameter of the patient and transmitting a signal corresponding to the sensed biological parameter to the controller, said biological parameter sensor selected from the group of sensors consisting of an end-tidal CO 2 sensor and a blood oxygen sensor; wherein the controller is programmed to adjust the variable threshold of the chest compression means based upon the signal corresponding to the sensed biological parameter; applying the chest compression means to the chest of the patient; operating the chest compression means to compress the chest of the patient; and while the patient is in cardiac arrest and the device is in operation compressing the patient's chest to a degree sufficient to perform CPR, adjusting the variable threshold of the chest compression based on the sensed biological parameter.