Friday, July 30, 2010
CPR without Mouth-To-Mouth Works Better in Cardiac Arrest
From Johns Hopkins Medicine
Studies support the case for dropping mouth-to-mouth and using “hands-only” chest compressions during CPR for cardiac arrest.
The findings concur with a recent statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) recommending hands-only (or compression-only) CPR by bystanders who are not adequately trained or who feel uncomfortable with performing rescue breathing on other adults who collapse from sudden cardiac arrest.
Studies between 2004 and 2009 on more than 3,000 men and women who needed CPR found that survival rates were similar whether the patient received only chest compressions versus standard CPR with rescue breathing. Both the standard and the “hands-only” CPR treatments were performed by bystanders getting instructions on which CPR method to use by 911 telephone dispatchers over the phone.
“For people who are not well trained or who are looking for a simple way to help save a life, chest compressions only, at least until the emergency care unit arrives, can be life saving,” says cardiologist Myron “Mike” Weisfeldt, M.D., “even without rescue breathing.” Weisfeldt is physician in chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and director of the Department of Medicine at Hopkins’ School of Medicine. He also wrote an editorial accompanying the studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine online.
Read the full article here.
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