Cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops pumping blood because its rhythm becomes disordered and unsynchronized (called ventricular fibrillation), and this happens most often as the result of underlying heart disease.
For years, experts thought the combination of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions was the best way to treat a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, but experts have recently done a reversal and now recommend chest compressions alone, which can provide a twofold increase in survival.
NEW CARDIAC-ARREST RULE 1: Chest compressions?
Yes. Mouth-to-mouth?
No.
Why the change after 40-plus years of telling people that both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth were essential for cardiac arrest? In a recent study, scientists found that survival rates of cardiac victims were higher when compressions were not accompanied by mouth-to-mouth. In fact, researchers now believe that giving mouth-to-mouth to someone in cardiac arrest is not only wrong but could also be deadly. That’s because during cardiac arrest, a person’s blood remains fully oxygenated when the heart stops. The exceptions are drowning and drug overdose; in these cases, the heart is still pumping blood and the body’s oxygen levels are quickly depleted, so mouth-to-mouth is necessary.
Cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops pumping blood because its rhythm becomes disordered and unsynchronized (called ventricular fibrillation), and this happens most often as the result of underlying heart disease.
