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CPR Studies Find No Benefit to Mouth-to-Mouth
from the Washington Post (Registration Required)
For anyone trying to save a victim of cardiac arrest, the questions used to be: How many breaths do I give? How many chest compressions? And do I really want to do this in the first place?
New research published Thursday, however, adds to growing evidence that cardiopulmonary resuscitation could be far simpler and less off-putting. For adults in cardiac arrest, mouth-to-mouth breathing might not be needed--or even helpful. Two studies in which telephone dispatchers instructed bystanders how to perform CPR found that patients who got only chest compressions were as likely to survive as ones getting conventional CPR that included rescue breathing.
About one-quarter of people who collapse away from a hospital get CPR before paramedics arrive, which roughly doubles their chance of survival. The fraction of bystanders too squeamish to begin CPR because of mouth-to-mouth contact isn't known. But researchers are betting it's high.
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