Specialists revamp CPR guidelines: New rules stress pumping the chest

[DeepModem Mom]

Boston Globe: Specialists revamp CPR guidelines
New rules stress pumping the chest
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | November 29, 2005


....The guidelines released by the American Heart Association mark the latest and most sweeping change in a back-to-basics movement in recent years that has framed CPR....

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The association's rules, the first update since less significant revisions five years ago, aim to make CPR easier to administer -- and to establish a more consistent flow of blood to the heart and brain in the minutes after a heart attack....

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Old guidelines called for rescuers to pump the chest 15 times and then blow into the mouth of the victim twice.

The new recommendations call for 30 chest compressions for every two breaths....

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Recent studies have shown that deeper compressions work best, a finding that inspired the recommendation to "push hard, push fast."...


http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/11/29/specialists_revamp_cpr_guidelines/

[DS1]

1. I always thought the 'correct' level of pressure was far too light

to be much use. Those dummies they make you test one were ridiculous, I've given massages harder than the pressure limit during those tests.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. The new guidelines also indicate that pumping alone, and not breathing...

is much better than nothing. Many people are reluctant to do mouth-to-mouth on strangers.

[DS1]

3. I saw that

I seem to remember reading about this change months ago, too :shrug:

[unblock]

4. back when i got my emt training (long since expired),

i was tought that it was better to err on the side of cracking the ribs. broken ribs won't do a dead man any harm.

[Heddi]

13. I was told in Nursing School

when we were doing CPR certification (and was also told by the EMT who did my subsiquent re-certification) that if you're not cracking ribs, you're not compressing hard enough.

They had manequins for us to use that had "intact" ribcages, and you would have to press down so hard as to hear the "crack" of the ribs. Poor girl in our class weighed less than 90 lbs and was NEVER able to exert enough force to crack the ribs....

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Whe I was a Boy Scout far back in the last millenium,

we learned something called "artificial respiration." The CPR world has apparently rediscovered the Boy Scout Handbook of about 1955.

[catmandu57]

6. I taught CPR

back in the late seventies, we taught the 15:2 cycle, if compressions are done correctly the 30:2 ratio is going to wear people out.

[Writer]

7. Here's what I don't remember... WHERE do you pump?

I can't remember if it's on the chest if its a heartattack, or on the bottom of the ribcage at the diaphram? Or is that for a drowning victim?

[catmandu57]

8. You place the index finger of your left hand

on the xiphoid process located at the bottom of the sternum, or at the wishbone, measure three fingers up, place the heel of your right hand next to your pinky finger, lock hand straighten yours arms, and back and start compressing the sternum straight down please.
Now count oneandtwoandthreeand....

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Thanks, catmandu! I went to the Heart Association site to get info...

but the site must be overloaded today -- I couldn't bring it up.

[Writer]

10. Wonderful. Thank you!

[rustydog]

12. New teaching for location ignores the xiphoid process

and adopts the infant procedure of on the nipple line.

[Sacajawea]

14. But that's assuming perky boobs.

Some nipples hover around the waistline. :7

[speedingbullet]

11. CPR

When I learned CPR in the 80's we were taught that there is little value in pumping un-oxygenated blood. I suppose the thinking has changed on this.