There were included 15 studies (Table 1) published between 2013 and 2023 and conducted in Europe [18, 19, 27,28,29], in North America [20, 24, 25, 31], in Africa [32, 33], in Asia [26, 30], and in Central America [23]; one study did not report the country [22].

Six were primarily aiming to investigate the efficacy of VR CPR training [18, 23, 25, 29, 31, 33], four its feasibility [22, 28, 29, 32], three its utility [19, 24, 30], and two its usability [20, 26]. To reach these aims, six were RCTs [22, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33], six were cross-sectional studies [19, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30], and three quasi experimental [18, 23, 32].

Basic CPR maneuvers were the target of eight studies [19, 22, 23, 26, 29, 30, 32, 33], while the remaining considered advanced CPR maneuvers [18, 20, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31]. Moreover, five studies focused on the initial CPR training [20, 22, 25, 27, 32], two the retraining [24, 33], while the remainder did not specify [18, 19, 23, 26, 28,29,30,31]. Studies were conducted mainly in hospitals [19, 22, 28,29,30, 32, 33], training centers [20, 23,24,25], and universities [18, 27]; two studies did not specify the setting [26, 31].

Regarding the targeted patients, population for which the training was intended included in 12 studies adults [18,19,20, 22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]) while in three neonates [31,32,33]; no pediatric patients were included. In the neonatal field participants were only HCPs, with 274 nurses and midwives [33], and 34 physicians [31]. Differently, studies concerning adult CPR included only physicians and sub-specialty, specific participants ranging from 25 anesthesiology residents to 148 clinicians [24, 25]; other adult studies included a mixed of HCPs, as for example 40 physicians and nurses [18], or 30 CPR instructors [