Mar 16, 2007

Chest Compressions Without Mouth-to-mouth Better For Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest

A recent study finds that the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting are twice as high if bystanders perform chest-compression-only resuscitation instead of traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with mouth-to-mouth breathing. Eliminating the need for mouth-to-mouth ventilation not only is more effective, but also should dramatically increase the incidence of bystander-initiated resuscitation efforts.