CPR: New technique could save many more lives

[Guest guest]

13 September 2007

A new method of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), which concentrates on

the belly area instead of the chest, is supposed to be more effective.

 

It's based on a discovery made by a nursing doctoral student who noticed

that blood flow was doubled if a person pushed down on the abdomen area

after each chest compression. Her professor, Leslie Geddes, at Purdue's

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, took the idea further, and has

suggested a new form of CPR that dispenses with chest compressions

altogether.

 

Instead of two breaths for every 30 chest compressions, the new procedure

provides a breath for every abdominal compression because pushing on the

abdomen depresses the diaphragm toward the head, expelling air from the

lungs.

The new technique produces 25 per cent more blood flow through the heart

muscle, and reduces the chances of damage to the rub cage.

 

(Source: Purdue press release, September 7, 2007).