ZOLL begins shipments of new AED Plus version as per AHA, ERC Guidelines

ZOLL^® Medical Corporation (Nasdaq GS: ZOLL), a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, announced today that it has begun shipments of a new version of its AED Plus^® that is fully compliant with the new American Heart Association (AHA) and European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines issued in October of 2010.

The most important change introduced in the new version is the enhanced real-time visual and audio feedback that guides the rescuer to deeper CPR chest compressions. Under the new AHA Guidelines, good compressions now must be at least a full two inches deep as opposed to the 1.5 to two inches required by the earlier 2005 Guidelines. For the ERC Guidelines, a good compression must be at least 5 cm deep as opposed to the earlier 4 cm to 5 cm recommendation. ZOLL recently received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to extend its Real CPR Help^® feedback technology to now prompt rescuers to administer compressions of at least two inches.

"Our enhanced Real CPR Help technology allows rescuers to know when their chest compressions are reaching the recommended depth of 2 inches or 5 centimeters. That half-inch, or one centimeter, increase in compression depth may sound small, but the 2010 Guidelines research shows it's critical to improving survival from cardiac arrest," said Jonathan A. Rennert, President of ZOLL. "Without Real CPR Help, rescuers have to guess the depth of their compressions. There's no longer any reason to guess when it comes to the recommended depth."