Compression-Only CPR for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

An observational comparison with conventional CPR could have implications for CPR guidelines.

For bystander-witnessed cardiac arrests, some experts debate the value of the mouth-to-mouth ventilation component of conventional CPR, and many witnesses are reluctant to perform the ventilation. In a prospective, multicenter, nonrandomized study from Japan, researchers examined 30-day neurologic outcomes among 4068 adults who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrests witnessed by bystanders: 71.7% received no bystander CPR, 17.5% received conventional CPR, and 10.8% received only chest compressions.

A favorable neurologic outcome at 30 days was significantly more common among patients who received any CPR than among those who received none (5% vs. 2%), with no difference by CPR type in the overall cohort. However, compression-only CPR ou…

Reviewing Author

Mark S. Link, MD