Performing chest compressions on people experiencing cardiac arrest may be just as good as, and possibly better than, combining chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth ventilation, the director of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center writes in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine.

“Authorities in CPR have come to realize that our now standard method of performing basic CPR is very difficult for the average lay person to learn, retain and perform,” Gordon A. Ewy, M.D., writes in an editorial.

Professor and chief of cardiology at the UA College of Medicine, Dr. Ewy is recognized internationally for his CPR research. In February, he received a “CPR Giant” award from the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee in recognition of his many contributions in the area.

Dr. Ewy was asked to write the editorial to accompany a journal article outlining a study done by a group of Seattle researchers in which emergency telephone dispatchers gave bystanders at the scene of cardiac arrests instructions in either
chest compressions alone or standard CPR (chest compressions plus mouth-to-mouth ventilation). The rates of survival until discharge from the hospital was higher among patients receiving chest compressions only, but not statistically significant. The Seattle researchers concluded that CPR using chest compressions alone has a similar outcome as standard CPR and may be the preferred approach for inexperienced bystanders.

The Sarver Heart Center's CPR Research Group also has found that chest compressions only could be better than standard CPR. The group is working toward finding a CPR method that is easy to learn, easy to do and more effective, with the hope that thousands more lives could be saved.

In a study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine about five years ago, a group of UA College of Medicine cardiologists found that 82 percent of people questioned were “very concerned” or “moderately concerned” about the possibility of getting a disease while giving mouth-to-mouth.

Dr. Ewy notes that the incidence of bystander-initiated CPR is extremely low throughout the world and that the vast majority of people have an aversion to mouth-to-mouth ventilation because of the fear of infection and other concerns.

“More importantly,” Dr. Ewy writes, “survival with CC-CPR (chest-compression CPR) is dramatically better than no bystander CPR.”

Dr. Ewy emphasizes that standard CPR is almost always essential in children and young adults. He also encourages the early use of an automatic external defibrillators (electronic devices that shock the heart to restore normal contraction rhythms) in patients suffering cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation, in which the ventricles contract in a rapid and uncoordinated way.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Ewy is available for phone interviews throughout the day and for face-to-face interviews after 5 p.m. To arrange an interview, please call Pila Martínez at 626-7031.