Words on the LUCAS device

Increased opportunities
for better patient outcomes

The LUCAS device has been shown to improve quality of chest compressions, increase ETCO2 levels as well as being able to sustain life-saving circulation during prolonged resuscitation attempts. LUCAS has been studied extensively, shown to be safe and effective and to save patients that would otherwise have been considered futile. 

Improving operational efficiencies

With the LUCAS device, fatigue, individual variations or psychological factors are removed from CPR and there is no longer a need for switching CPR providers every two minutes. LUCAS helps provide high-quality and safer chest compressions in situations such as patient movement and transportation, during prolonged CPR or in the cath lab.

LUCAS System Values


LUCAS device has shown to:

  • Provide consistent quality of chest compressions during resuscitation attempts1, 2, 3
  • Create life-sustaining perfusion of the brain and heart of the patient4, 5, 6
  • Create good neurological outcomes7, 8

LUCAS enables and facilitates:

  • Extended CPR
  • High-quality CPR during transport1, 2, 26
  • Treatment of the underlying cause, such as myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism and accidental hypothermia

LUCAS helps your team by:

  • Freeing up hands and reducing chaos around the patient
  • Calming down the scene and buying time to make decisions
  • Providing CPR guidance and data for feedback



LUCAS helps keep your team safe:

  • During ambulance, helicopter or in-hospital transportation
  • By reducing x-ray exposure of CPR provider during PCI in cath lab 
  • During the physically demanding work of providing CPR in awkward physical conditions 
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LUCAS System Values

US version

>99%

rated the LUCAS device easy or
very easy to learn to use9

>99%

documented operational reliability10

7 sec

A median 7 second interruption when transitioning from manual to LUCAS mechanical chest compressions in routine use in a BLS/ALS system.11

Pre-hospital

Staying safe

Caregivers cannot deliver optimal care if they are at risk of injury on the job. From the field to the cath lab, the LUCAS device reduces risks to caregivers while maintaining Guidelines-consistent chest compressions.

Did you know that:

Unrestrained occupants are 6.5 times more likely to be severely injured and 3.8 times more likely to be killed12 in the 4,500 ambulance crashes each year.13

Addresses transport hazards

The ambulance transport environment is inherently dangerous because of high-speed driving, risky maneuvers and hazardous road conditions. This poses a significant safety risk for the EMS crew who are often standing and unrestrained in a confined space while performing CPR.14

With LUCAS your team can sit safely belted during ambulance or helicopter transportation.

CPR guidelines recognizes the value of mechanical CPR in situations where provider safety is compromised or when high-quality manual CPR is not possible.15, 16

Did you know that:

  • The LUCAS device is now considered mandatory on Danish Search & Rescue Helicopters.17
  • 30-40% of patients who have achieved return of spontaneous circulation on the scene will re-arrest prior to hospital arrival, some during the transport.19, 20


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LUCAS during helicopter transport
US versions - for Intl. English version, see Resources


“EMS personnel encounter a hazardous and difficult work environment in a
moving ambulance while providing lifesaving and life-sustaining emergency patient care." 18

Ambulance Safety Conference Summary

Keeps back pain in mind

CPR causes back pain in 60%
of ambulance officers.21

CPR causes back pain in >80%
of nurses who perform it.22

Each back strain in a provider costs an anticipated $18,000 in direct medical and employer expenses and lost income.23

When you want to move the patient

Sometimes the scene is unsafe or unsuitable to stay and treat and the patient and the caregiver would be better off elsewhere.

Whether a cardiac arrest patient needs to be navigated with ongoing CPR, e.g. from mountains, a football stadium, through stairs, transported in an ambulance or helicopter, or through busy hospital corridors– it is difficult for the rescuer to provide effective chest compressions during movement.

In the hospital

Overcoming the mattress effect

Did you know that: 

  • When you compress the chest on a patient laying on a mattress the mattress receives a large share of the compression, not the patient.24
  • CPR causes back pain in >80% of nurses who perform it.22
  • It can take more than 55 kg to compress a chest.25

The LUCAS device delivers guidelines-consistent chest compressions independent on what surface the patient lies upon, the height of the bed or the rescuer's physical strength. 


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Eliminate the mattress effect

US version - for Intl. Eng version , see Resources

Buys time for diagnosis and definitive therapy

Sometimes advanced life-support like CPR and defibrillation alone are not enough to achieve a stable pulse in the patient. In a wide range of case reports of refractory VF or PEA, LUCAS has been the critical tool for making transportation to the cath lab possible, followed by emergency angiography with life-saving PCI intervention during ongoing LUCAS circulatory support.

In the Cath Lab

Fewer compromises between rescuer safety and life-saving intervention

Manual CPR in the cath lab setting, during fluroscopy or intervention:

  • Is a challenge if not impossible
  • Is often interrupted 
  • Can result in the provider experiencing excessive radiation exposure
  • Makes it hard to maneuver radiation equipment around the rescuer doing manual CPR.14

The LUCAS device overcomes these limitations and allows for a continued rescue-intervention during high-quality mechanical chest compressions. 


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LUCAS in the Cath Lab

US version - for Intl. Eng version, see Resources

LUCAS CPR and angiography of a heart that has arrested

Angiographic video, courtesy of Dr. G K Olivecrona, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden

This angiography shows a heart in cardiac arrest. After a short while LUCAS is started and the contrastmedia is immediately circulated.

The LUCAS device sustains the blood circulation of cardiac arrest patients in the cath lab and allows for simultaneous intervention to treat the cause of the arrest.14


View more angiographic videos under Resources 


”The LUCAS device is absolutely invaluable for the interventional cardiologist. Having the LUCAS device in the cath lab is as essential as having a balloon pump or a covered stent.”

Dr AP Shah, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL, US. Read more 

Allows various angles

The LUCAS device is mostly radiotranslucent except for the hood and compression mechanism.
Most radiological projection angles can be used during LUCAS CPR, something which is not possible during manual CPR.

A bridge to PCI or advanced circulatory support

CASE STUDY - PCI

Like hospitals across the globe, the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) struggled to improve survival of cardiac arrest patients. Too often, patients would die before they could receive the treatments they needed – often PCI to unblock constricted arteries.

At least, that was the case until they brought in the LUCAS Chest Compression System. By using LUCAS as a bridge technology, the UCM Cath Lab team was able to ”buy time” by performing high-quality CPR while the team resolved the patient’s underlying issue. Providers were also no longer subject to radiation exposure or required to do CPR while straining over a table or gurney.

”This patient almost certainly would not have survived
if we didn’t have a device like the LUCAS chest compression system.”

Dr J Paul, MD, University of Chicago Medicine, IL, US



Read how UCM use mechanical CPR to buy time

CPR guidelines

International guidelines on CPR emphasize the importance of high-quality CPR for good patient outcomes. It is widely recognized that high-quality manual CPR is difficult to maintain.

Excerpts from the guidelines


"CPR is inherently inefficient; it provides only 10% to 30% of normal blood flow to the heart and 30% to 40% of normal blood flow to the brain even when delivered according to guidelines.This inefficiency highlights the need or trained rescuers to deliver the highest-quality CPR possible. Poor-quality CPR should be considered a preventable harm.” 

AHA Consensus on CPR quality, Meany et al, Circulation 2013 Jul 23, 128(4)

“The use of mechanical CPR devices may be considered in specific settings where the delivery of high-quality manual compressions may be challenging or dangerous for the provider, as long as rescuers strictly limit interruptions in CPR during deployment and removal of the device."

AHA 2020 Guidelines. Circulation. 2020;142(suppl 2):S366–S468


“Automated mechanical chest compression devices may enable the delivery of high quality compressions especially in circumstances  where this may not be possible with manual compressions – CPR  in a moving ambulance where safety is at risk, prolonged CPR  (e.g. hypothermic arrest), and CPR during certain procedures (e.g.  coronary angiography or preparation for extra-corporeal CPR).”  

ERC European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015, Resuscitation. 2015;95:1-311.

“On an angiography table with the image intensifier above the patient, delivering chest compressions with adequate depth and rate is almost impossible and exposes the rescuers to dangerous radiation. Therefore, early transition to the use of a mechanical chest compression device is strongly recommended.”

ERC European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015, Resuscitation. 2015;95:1-311.

"Mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is strongly recommended if simple measures do not succeed in resuscitating the patient. We recommend that mechanical CPR is commenced after the first cycle of manual CPR.

We recommend that all catheter laboratories have mechanical CPR immediately available in the catheter laboratory complex in case of arrest."

Dunning J, Archbold A, de Bono JP, et al. Joint British Societies' guideline on management of cardiac arrest in the cardiac catheter laboratory. Heart. 2022;0:1–18.

The ERC Guidelines 2021 writing group considered new data did not materially alter the previous ERC guidelines on the use of mechanical chest compression devices in cardiac arrest.27

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