All the changes apply only to adult victims who collapse of cardiac arrest; artificial respiration is still recommended for children and for adults in a few cases, including near-drowning and drug overdose.
For years, anyone learning CPR -- emergency resuscitation -- was taught the "ABC": Check the airway for blockages, give breaths, then circulate the blood. New guidelines issued Monday by the American Heart Association turn that alphabet on its head, punctuating a shift that has led emergency responders to emphasize compression of the chest over all else when treating victims of cardiac arrest.
The new catch-phrase is "C-A-B" -- as in start pushing on the chest before doing anything else. The AHA guidelines also uphold a 2008 recommendation that untrained responders call 911 but then forget rescue breathing completely, and simply press on the victim's chest until help arrives.
Going a step beyond that, the 2010 guidelines "strongly recommend" that 911 dispatchers guide callers in "compression-only" CPR, sometimes known as CCR. However, medical professionals and trained lay people are still urged to give the victim two "rescue breaths" in between each series of 30 chest compressions.
All the changes apply only to adult victims who collapse of cardiac arrest; artificial respiration is still recommended for children and for adults in a few cases, including near-drowning and drug overdose.
The science behind the changes is simple. In an adult who has been breathing normally, for several minutes even after cardiac arrest there is enough oxygen in the bloodstream to maintain the heart and brain, as long as compressions circulate that oxygen.
In this scenario, pausing to provide oxygen through rescue breaths is not only unnecessary, but harmful because it requires the rescuer to stop pressing on the chest for at least several seconds.
"The difference between the specific types of CPR isn't nearly as large as the difference between not doing CPR, and getting people to do any kind of CPR at all," says Bobrow.
One clear benefit of eliminating mouth-to-mouth is that by eliminating fear of infections, you get more people to jump in. As director of emergency services for the state of Arizona, Bobrow has made public education a major focus, with billboards, radio spots and other messages, driving people to a teaching website... http://medicine.arizona.edu/sarver-cpr
Since 2004, the number of bystanders who attempt CPR has gone from 28 percent to 40 percent.
good info they have changed the norm of CPR ! everybody need to see this,, you never know when you might have to use it to save a life !
Thursday, October 21st 2010 at 8:57PM
DAVID JOHNSON
