Many people who have been trained in CPR believe that if they are assisting
someone in cardiac arrest, they need to do mouth-to-mouth breathing and chest
compressions.
But two studies in the journal Circulation say that survival chances may be
worse when people do mouth-to-mouth.
The studies from Sweden and Japan found no significant difference between
survival rates in about 15,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest,
according to authors from the University of Arizona.
"To rescue someone who suddenly collapses for no apparent reason, mouth-to-mouth
breathing makes no sense," said Dr. Gordon Ewy, director of The University of
Arizona Sarver Heart Center.
His team's previous work in the laboratory suggested what the real-world results
showed.
"Studies have shown over and over again that four out of five bystanders would
not do CPR because of the mouth-to-mouth part," he said. "If people don't have
to worry about the so-called rescue breathing, they are much more likely to
actually do CPR on someone who needs it. This fact alone is the key to saving
more lives. If someone calls the emergency medical services and does nothing,
the individual has almost no chance of surviving."
He said assisting with breathing doesn't make much difference because oxygen is
still in the blood for a while. Chest compressions keep the oxygenated blood
circulating to the heart and brain.
