Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR meant as the way to keep alive patients who experience cardiac arrest or cardiac infarction (heart attack). Generally, it consists of two parts, chest compression and mouth-to-mouth rescue-breathing. But, there was a few of studies said that the rescue-breathing part does not help. It was because it can cause the brain damage. According to a Japanese study, it has been found that the rescue breathing can actually do more harm than good, potentially increasing the risk of brain damage in the survivors. Some experts also said that mouth-to-mouth ventilation was not only unnecessary in those who suffer cardiac arrest, but also wasted time and disrupted chest compression, which should be continuous to increase the odds of survival.
In this case, actually there is a standard or recommended CPR. It is 30 chest compressions and two mouth-to- mouth breaths. Chest compression requires pressing the patient’s chest down at least one and a half inches within less than one second before releasing. Thomas D. Rea, M.D., leader of a study, at the University of Washington and colleagues stated that chest compression only cardiopulmonary resuscitation saved 12.5% of patients who were able to live to hospital discharge after being resuscitated while the conventional CPR saved 11%. In this study, there were about 2000 patients being the participants. And the study was published in the July 29, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
On the other hand, there is another study which led by Leif Svensson, M.D., Ph.D. at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and colleagues. The study found that chest compression alone helped 8.7% of patients to survive for 30 days or more while the standard CPR helped just 7% of patients. Now, there are many medical organizations, even hospitals which like to do compression-only CPR. It is because Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is safe, legal, and easy.