I have always been interested in ventilation during CPR. And I’m not talking about ventilation when conducting compressions and inhalations at a ratio of 30:2 because here everything seems clear but constant compressions and attempted ventilation during CPR seems like a higher school of physics…. And here it turns out that even when performing CPR using a 30:2 ratio of compressions to breaths, a lot can also be screwed up.
Hans van Schuppen and co-authors questioned whether the 3-second pause for taking 2 breaths, programmed into automatic chest compression devices, is long enough….. and as you may have guessed
IS NOT
132 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA)
1619 pauses for ventilation during these OHCAs
in 28% it took more than 3 seconds to give two breaths
in 90%, the second inhalation ended in 3.8s
And in as many as 97.5% of pauses to give a second inhalation, 5 seconds were needed
The authors emphasize that in addition to the possibility of administering 2 air compressions, a 5-second breathing interval can also be used for other interventions such as rhythm assessment….
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957222006578
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