Changes in CPR

Since I last was active on this blog, a few important things have happened. The 2010 AHA Guidelines have recommended the Circulation-Airway-Breathing (CAB) sequence, which is a significant improvement. This is a step toward acknowledging that linking rescue breathing with chest compressions for all cardiac arrests 50 years ago was a huge mistake. However, the AHA is not known for acknowledging errors. The usual statement is that previous recommendations were just fine, but now we want you to do this.

The AHA does now say more explicitly that people untrained in BLS should start hands-only CPR--that is, chest compressions only. This ignores a number of good studies showing that hands-only CPR leads to better survival than conventional CPR with rescue breaths for non-asphyxial arrests (which the great majority are). So trained rescuers are still expected to use the less effective method.