Chest Compressions Effective in Emergency Cardiac Arrest - Medline Plus

Chest compressions alone (without mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) may be as effective as standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth) when bystanders come to the aid of people who've suffered cardiac arrest.

That's the conclusion of two studies published in the Dec. 11 issue of the journal Circulation.

A Swedish study that looked at 11,275 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest over 15 years found that one-month survival rates were similar for patients who received standard CPR (30 compressions for every two breaths) or chest compressions alone (CC-CPR) from bystanders -- 7.2 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.

"If you hesitate to do CPR, remember that chest compressions only is better than doing nothing," study author Katarina Bohm said in a prepared statement....