BACKGROUND Hands-Only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is recommended for use on adult victims of witnessed out-of-hospital (OOH) sudden cardiac arrest or in instances where rescuers cannot perform ventilations while maintaining minimally interrupted quality compressions. Promotion of Hands-Only CPR should improve the incidence of bystander CPR and, subsequently, survival from OOH cardiac ar...

Several new CPR techniques and devices have been developed and tested since the first report of manual closed-chested cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) nearly four decades ago. These devices and techniques include vest CPR, interposed abdominal counterpulation CPR, active compression-decompression CPR, an impedance threshold valve, intra-aortic balloon pump and phased thoracic-abdominal count...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Microdialysis is an established tool to analyse tissue biochemistry, but the value of this technique to monitor cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) effects on cerebral metabolism is unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of active-compression-decompression (ACD) CPR in combination with an inspiratory threshold valve (ITV) (=experimental CPR) vs. stan...

Background—Dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DA-CPR) attempts to improve the management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) by laypersons who are unable to recognize cardiac arrest and are unfamiliar with CPR. Therefore, we investigated the sensitivity and specificity of our new DA-CPR protocol for achieving implementation of bystander CPR in OHCA victims not already recei...

BACKGROUND Blood pressure is severely reduced in patients in cardiac arrest receiving standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Although active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR improves acute hemodynamic parameters, arterial pressures remain suboptimal with this technique. We performed ACD CPR in patients with a new inspiratory threshold valve (ITV) to determine whether lowering intratho...

BACKGROUND Currently the American Red Cross requires that individuals renew their cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification annually; this often requires a 4- to 8-hour refresher course. Those trained in CPR often show a decrease in essential knowledge and skills within just a few months after training. New electronic means of communication have expanded the possibilities for delivering...

Challenged by the continued high mortality rates for patients in cardiac arrest, the American Heart Association and the European Resuscitation Council developed a new set of guidelines in 2000 to help advance several new and promising cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques and devices. This is the first time these organizations have taken such a bold move, in part because of the poor re...

Survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies across the developed world. Although not all OHCA are recoverable, the survival rate in Scotland is lower than in comparable countries, with higher average survival rates of 7.9% in England and 9% across Europe. The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers, facilitators and public attitudes to administering bystander cardiopulmo...

Despite efforts to save more people suffering from in-hospital cardiac arrest, rates of survival after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are no better today than they were more than a decade ago. This study was undertaken to assess the demographics, clinical parameters and outcomes of patients undergoing CPR by the code blue team at our center during 2001 to 2008. Data were collec...

Interposed abdominal compression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (IAC-CPR) is an alternative technique to traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that can improve perfusion and lead to restoration of circulation in patients with chest wall deformity either acquired through vigorous CPR or co-morbidity such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We report a case of out-of-hospital cardi...