Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique that involves a combination of rescue breathing (mouth to mouth) and chest compressions delivered to victims in cardiac arrest.
In my opinion, this is probably the most useful skill you will ever learn in your life.
Why is CPR important?
An estimated 310,000 Americans die each year of cardiac arrest. Only about 6 percent of those who are stricken outside a hospital survive.
CPR allows oxygenated blood to circulate to your vital organs such as the brain and heart and doubles the likelihood of survival for victims of cardiac arrest. Without oxygen, permanent brain damage or death can occur in less than 8 minutes
What are the different methods of CPR?
Standard CPR: The standard versions of CPR, practiced for more than 50 years, involves cycles of 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths.
Continuous Chest compression CPR: In the new chest compression CPR adopted by American Heart Association 2 years back, there is no rescue breathing, only chest compressions (100/min)
Till date, besides animal studies and a few small studies, there has been no large human studies comparing the effectiveness of these 2 methods on survival.
What does the recent studies suggest?
Two recent large studies (1900 and 1300 hundred people) published in the top clinical journal - New England Journal of Clinical Medicine - suggest that continuous chest compression CPR by bystanders is as effective for survival as the traditional CPR of rescue breaths.
Why is chest compression CPR better?
People being panicky and being worried about doing CPR wrong were the two top reasons why people don’t attempt CPR.Chest compression CPR procedure is simple to perform and teach and more people are likely to perform it over the standard CPR.( The traditional CPR requires a CPR certification training).
Most times people do rescue breathing wrong and the breathing the interruption reduces blood flow to the major organs.
There is no mouth to mouth contact and hence there is no concerns and risks associated with the transmission of infectious diseases
Chest compression CPR is more effective in certain heart rythms ( ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation).
Should we stop doing rescue breaths?
No. CPR courses should teach rescue breathing, since it is still preferred in children and adults who suffer cradiac arrest due to respiratory failure by choking, drowning and so on.
There is certainly a need for rescue breathing after a prolonged period of CPR.We are not sure if we should interrupt compressions for this or not
How do I do Chest compression CPR?
This video only takes 2 minutes.
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Karky
| Sun August 15, 2010
I think it’s good that you write an article about this! CPR awareness cannot be high enough.
I think it’s weird that most people think the mouth to mouth is harder than the compressions. You can practice mouth to mouth on a live person, you can’t do that with compressions. I used to practice mouth to mouth on my girlfriend (no kidding)
I remember being taught that the compressions were the most important part, and that if you messed up the mouth to mouth, just don’t worry about it and start with the compressions. The mouth to mouth has to be quick, keeping the blood flowing is the most important part.
Anoop | Mon August 16, 2010
Thanks Karky for the comment.
I think the hard part of traditional CPR is you have to remember so many steps like the open the airway, check for breathing, check for circulation. People tend to skip steps even after getting trained in a training scenario. Imagine someone getting all these steps right in real life. I am CPR instructor certified and I teach people but still I have my doubts.
And i don’t think many people will put their lips around a stranger even though the risk of disease transmission is less. And the study shows how 70%( I think) more people were willing to do chest compressions than traditional CPR.
Karky
| Mon August 16, 2010
Yeah, that’s true. I actually carry one of those mouth protection things for CPR around in my wallet. It’s just a piece of plastic that you can put on the persons lips so you don’t come in contact with them.
