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A type of CPR that doesn't require mouth-to-mouth breathing may have some advantages. Hi, I'm Dr. Cindy Haines, host of HealthDay TV.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation - better known as CPR - is a technique that can help keep people alive if their heart has stopped working. It involves compressing the chest to keep blood moving to the heart and brain. Experts are growing more interested in CPR that only uses these compressions, but not the rescue breathing that some bystanders may be reluctant to provide.
In a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine, emergency dispatchers gave different CPR instructions to bystanders who were with adults in cardiac arrest. The patients either received CPR with chest compressions alone or with rescue breathing.
In each group, a similar number of patients survived until they were discharged from the hospital. However, some types of patients had a tendency to have better survival with chest compressions alone. These included patients with a heart-related cause for their cardiac arrest, as opposed to issues like an overdose.
According to the researchers, these findings support the idea that CPR performed by laypeople may need to put more emphasis on the compressions, and less on the rescue breathing.
IÕm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV, with the news that doctors are reading; health news that matters to you.
