Friday, March 16, 2007

Hold the Breath for Bystander CPR

TOKYO, March 16 -- Bystander CPR with no mouth-to-mouth ventilation doubled the chance that those in cardiac arrest would have a good neurologic outcome, researchers here reported.
"Cardiac-only resuscitation by bystanders is the preferable approach to resuscitation for adult patients with witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, especially those with apnea, shockable rhythm, or short periods of untreated arrest," wrote Ken Nagao, M.D., and colleagues, of Surugadai Nihon University Hospital, in the March 17 issue of The Lancet.
They found in a study of more than 4,000 cardiac arrest cases that while any attempt at out-of-hospital resuscitation was better than doing nothing at preserving neurologic function, cardiac-only resuscitation doubled, or nearly doubled, the chance that patients would have a favorable neurologic outcome.
This was especially so when CPR was started within four minutes of cardiac arrest or in those with apnea or a shockable cardiac rhythm.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/MyocardialInfarction/tb1/5268

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