The “ABCs” that emergency medical providers have come to know and love has now been changed to “CAB” – as in Circulation first then Airway then Breathing.
Gordon Ewy finally gets well-deserved recognition for his compression-only model of CPR and its significant improvement in patient outcomes. Compress first, compress hard, ask questions later.
These are just a couple of the many changes in the updated CPR/ACLS Guidelines.
The entire set of guidelines is available for review and download at Circulation’s web site. Get them now for free while they are available.
I thought I heard about compression only CPR being the new standard a while ago. So up until now was it just unofficial?
“Research has shown that several factors prevent bystanders from taking action, including fear that they will perform CPR incorrectly”
No need for research there. Chances are if I’m the only person around to help I’ll end up doing more harm than good…cracked ribs, snapped sternum, and punctured lungs anyone?
I am sure Nurse K will agree that Happy Hospitalist will love this – as apparently he is not usually concerned with the airway.
Seeing Happy do anything with an airway, breathing or circulation would be about as likely as seeing a three-legged woolly mammoth playing a ukelele in a tutu or a med-surg nurse using an ambu bag.
I think there’s a difference in that with this scenario the airway happens at some point.
I have also read about the compression only method…I think it came from Purdue University. Apparently, it showed great success in comparison to breaths and compression. Hold on. I will get the story…
Here is a link to one of the stories on Leslie Geddes’ paper found in the AJEM.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKUA17353820070921
So this worked on animals. What is the evidence that this is best for humans?