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Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has produced variable results since its introduction in the mid-seventies [1–3]. On the one hand, up to 32% survival has been reported, on the other hand, other studies demonstrated no benefit from the method. Although outcome also depends on time- and patient-related factors, the fact that conventional CPR usually does not even generate sufficient vital organ perfusion to maintain aerobic metabolism [4, 5] contributes to mortality and neurologic damage after circulatory arrest.

Investigations on the compliance of intracranial or craniospinal spaces have become routine procedures in different pathological and occasionally in normal circumstances. A large body of both experimental and clinical data has accumulated in the literature, elucidating the characteristic mechanisms underlying the regulation of craniospinal volume-pressure relationship; most of the evidence however was collected from a CSF space, inherently involving the spinal fluid space, too.