More Evidence That Compression-Only CPR Works Best

Avoiding mouth-to-mouth allows responders to keep blood flowing, researchers say

From the October 14, 2010 Health Day news item

THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) — Emergency dispatchers should advise bystanders to use chest-compression-only CPR on heart attack victims, rather than the standard protocol of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth ventilation, according to a new study.

The findings echo the results of other recent reports that have compared the two strategies.

Continuous, uninterrupted chest compressions may be the key to successful CPR, according to this team of American and Austrian researchers.

“By avoidance of rescue ventilations (mouth-to-mouth) during CPR, which are often fairly time-consuming for lay bystanders, a continuous uninterrupted coronary perfusion pressure is maintained, which increases the probability of a successful outcome,” they wrote in the Oct. 14 online edition of The Lancet.

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In addition, chest-compression-only CPR is easier to perform, which increases the likelihood that bystanders will be willing and able to help heart attack victims, the team said……..

The new findings echo those of recent studies. For example, in September a team from the University of Michigan reported that patients who experience sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting fare just as well when treated with chest compressions before being treated with an electrical defibrillator as they do when getting immediate defibrillation. That study appeared in the journal BMC Medicine.

And in July, two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine each found that chest compression alone was equal to compressions plus mouth-to-mouth when it came to helping people experiencing a heart attack.

[Editor Flahiff’s note: If you need help  figuring out  the referred issues of BMC Medicine and NEJM,
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