In Many CPRs, Skip the Mouth-to-Mouth

Two studies published Wednesday bolster a shift in thinking about how to revive many cardiac-arrest patients: Don't do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Instead, bystanders can help most victims as effectively by doing chest compressions alone.

Together, the studies examined more than 3,000 patients and found no statistical difference in survival between the two groups. One study, conducted by researchers in Seattle and London, showed that 12.5% of the chest-compression-alone group survived to leave the hospitals to which they were admitted, and 11% survived when rescue breathing was added to the chest compressions.
The other study, conducted in Sweden, showed an 8.7% 30-day survival rate in the compression-only group and a 7% survival rate with standard CPR.
Rescue breathing helps add oxygen to the blood. But when the heart stops and breathing slows or stops, there is often still a limited supply of oxygen in the blood, and the most critical need may not be to add oxygen, but rather to distribute that oxygenated blood to organs like the brain using compressions, according to Dr. Rea.
Wednesday's studies are consistent with the AHA's 2008 recommendation that bystanders without training or who don't feel comfortable performing mouth-to-mouth carry out chest compression only, because some CPR is better than none at all.