TUCSON, Ariz. — Victims of cardiac arrest were twice as likely to survive when given continuous chest compressions by bystanders, according to a study released Sunday by two Arizona researchers.
Those receiving traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation — which includes blowing air into the lungs — died at almost the same rate as those for whom nothing was done, according to the study presented at an American Heart Association resuscitation symposium.
Dr. Gordon Ewy, director of the University of Arizona’s Sarver Heart Center, said he hopes this latest evidence will persuade the heart association to change its guidelines for teaching resuscitation techniques. Ewy has been crusading since 2003 for the change.
Previous studies in Arizona and elsewhere already have shown that the technique saves lives. An Arizona study showed the survival rate tripled when it was used by health professionals such as paramedics and fire crews in the field.
Still, the Heart Association continues to recommend that those trained in CPR, and who are comfortable performing mouth-to-mouth breathing, use that procedure instead, Ewy said.
“It’s shocking,” said Ewy, who presented the report along with Dr. Bentley Bobrow, medical director of the Bureau of Emergency Services and Trauma System, an arm of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
“When somebody has cardiac arrest and you are pressing on their chest, your hands are their heartbeat. If you stop for anything, you stop the blood flow to the brain,” Ewy said.
In conventional CPR, rescuers stop doing chest compressions to administer two quick breaths of air to the victim. This may be effective when the unconsciousness is respiratory, as is the case with drowning or choking.
Most collapses, however, are the result of cardiac arrest, and respiration is not needed, Bobrow said.
The study presented by Ewy analyzed 4,850 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Arizona between 2005 and 2009. Bystanders gave aid in 2,030 of those cases, performing conventional CPR in 1,232 cases and compression only in 798.
The survival rate for the untreated victims was 5 percent; for conventional CPR, 6 percent; and for compression only, 11 percent.
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