Contrary to long-held beliefs, heart massage is much more important than mouth-to-mouth breathing during first aid treatment by a non-professional, and the latter is not necessary at all, reports the New England Journal of Medicine.
Two independent studies did not show that cardiac massage alone performed inferior in terms of survival than cardiac massage combined with mouth-to-mouth breathing. As it turned out, in the case of people without medical training, the compression of the chest was as effective (12,5% of the rescued survived) as the compression combined with blowing air into the lungs (11%) – the former is easier to learn and performance. Many people fear bacteria or think they cannot cope with artificial respiration, and therefore do not undertake CPR at all. Meanwhile, it is enough to place your hands in the center of the chest and apply pressure 100 times a minute.
In the first study, ambulance staff in London and two Washington State districts advised callers about first aid, randomly recommending either the heart massage itself or a combination of it with artificial respiration. The study, led by Dr. Thomas D. Rea of the University of Washington in Seattle, looked at 1941 patients, 981 of whom were only rescued with cardiac massage. The second study looked at 1276 Swedish patients with similar results.
Already in 2008, the American Heart Association, departing from a long tradition and based on research on humans and animals, recommended abandoning artificial respiration and introducing resuscitation based only on compressing the sternum at a frequency of 100 times per minute. The current research confirms the rightness of this decision. (PAP)