Lose the mouth to mouth contact & CPR works just as well

Baltimore - You can forget about what you've been taught about performing CPR on someone who doesn't appear to be breathing. Two studies have now proven if you drop the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and only use chest compression, the results will still be the same.

Looking to save someone's life with CPR? Two studies one from the U.S., the other from Europe confirm that there is no need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, that using your hands to compress the chest rhythmically will most certainly save the life of a victim of cardiac arrest. The Heart Organization reports that this is not new. It's an approach that has been advocated by the American Heart Association (AHA), which issued its "call to action" for "hands-only" CPR back in 2008. And Dr Myron L. Weisfeldt with Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore points out in an editorial accompanying the two studies, that this thinking offers a new option for those who wish to perform CPR.

"The straightforward message from these papers is that advocating compression-only CPR should increase the likelihood that bystanders will attempt resuscitation, since performance of mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing is far more difficult than proper chest compression and may be viewed with distaste and raise concerns about risks associated with mouth-to-mouth contact."

AOL Health reports that the studies were carried out between 2004 and 2009 on more than 3,000 men and women who needed CPR. What they found is that the survival rates were similar for adults who received CPR from bystanders, some of whom were randomly assigned to provide only chest compressions, while others were asked to perform standard CPR with mouth-to-mouth or rescue breathing. The instructions were given through 911 phone calls. But Dr. Weisfeldt cautions that there are instances where mouth-to-mouth is required.

"It is very important to understand that the patients in this study were adults and that for most children who suffer cardiac arrest, such as drowning victims, we must do rescue breathing."

Weisfeldt says adults who have sudden, acute heart failure, severe chronic lung disease, acute asthma and and cardiac arrest should also received CPR with mouth-to-mouth.

"For people who are not well trained or who are looking for a simple way to help save a life, chest compressions only, at least until the emergency care unit arrives, can be life saving, even without rescue breathing."