30:2 Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Might Outperform Continuous Compressions in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

For patients without advanced airways who undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends a pause after every 30 chest compressions to give 2 breaths (i.e., 30:2 strategy). However, continuous chest compressions (CCC) with asynchronous breaths usually are used. To examine whether adherence to either of these CPR strategies is associated with improved outcomes, researchers used observational data from a large registry and several clinical trials. This study included only adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and >2 minutes of recorded electrocardiographic files from on-scene defibrillators for whom the intended strategy (30:2 or CCC) was known.

Adherence to the intended strategy — determined b…