Archive for September, 2013

‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, Stayin Alive Stayin Alive’ x2 sung the Bee Gees, a popular music group formed in the 1950’s. Little did they know that this song would not only be more than just a fan favorite, but also a tune that would be used to save people suffer having cardiac arrest.

The death rate resulting from patients who received in-house cardiopulmonary resuscitation has increased. The same negative effect has been portrayed in a drop on the rate of survivors being released from hospitals after going through CPR procedures. This was reported by the William J. Ehlenbach (University of Washington) and colleagues.

It came to the knowledge of researchers that children who suffer in-hospital cardiac arrests are often deprived of some benefits when exposed to a much longer cardiopulmonary resuscitation period. The research took a study of 3,419 children to prove the matter. Of that population, 28% were able to survive until they were released from hospital. 16.6% of these patients who survived had been receiving the CPR for more than 35 minutes.

A meta-analysis was done on three separate dispatcher-assisted CPR with some involving mouth-to-mouth ventilation, while others without. According to Peter Nagele, (MD of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) CPR that only used chest compressions was seen to improve the chances of the patient’s survival by 22%. This represented a 2.4% absolute increase in survival.

Administration of mouth to mouth procedure has sidelined many people who are just a few minutes away from saving the life of a person whose heart has abruptly stopped. In their efforts to address such concerns, in 2010, American Heart Association changed its standards in advocating for the hands- only CPR.

According to a Japanese study, there is a higher chance of cardiac arrest survival when a by-stander uses chest compression cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It was also observed by Takuiwami, (MD, PhD, of the Kyoto University Health Service in Kyoto, Japan) and colleagues that there was 40.7% chance of survival of the out-of-hospital patients living independently from external help.

A 5 year observational analysis on more than 4000 cases of out of hospital cardiac arrests showed that the patient had a 60 percent chance of surviving when bystanders provided the simpler hands on CPR method. This eliminated the need for interrupting chest compressions with mouth to mouth CPR rescue breathing, reported Bentley Bobrow, of Arizona Department of Health Services.

Without oxygen, vital organs like the brain only have very few minutes to survive before a serious damage can happen. As such, when a person’s heart beating or breathing stops, it is essential to know how you can save a life. CPR is a very simple but highly important procedure which everyone must know how to perform.

A Japanese study has shown that children who suffering from a cardiac arrest out of hospital can have a positive neurologic outcome when provided with a CPR by a bystander. As per the findings of the study, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation doubled the chances of a favorable/ positive neurologic outcome (category 1 or 2 of Glasgow- Pittsburg cerebral performance) compared to the outcome when no CPR is offered, according to new findings reported in The Lancet.

CPR is a technique that can save life during situations that compromise a person’s cardiopulmonary system. This can be stopping of the heartbeat or when the patient has some breathing difficulties. The American Heart Association advises that everyone, including medical personnel and untrained bystanders start the CPR process with chest compressions. Even if you are afraid that your abilities and CPR knowledge is not a 100$ complete, doing something is by far much better than doing nothing. This can save the patient’s life.