A new study suggests that there is indeed a relationship between survival rates after cardiac arrest and the amount of time spent administering chest compressions during CPR, a finding that could prove of great importance to emergency medical workers.
The study, published this week in Circulation, examined data on 506 attempts to rescue patients with cardiac arrest at emergency medical centers between 2005 and 2007, studying the amount of time performing chest compressions relative to overall CPR time invested.
Researchers concluded that heart function returned to normal after 58 percent of cases when CPR time was less than 20 percent. Meanwhile, when the time spent in chest compressions was 81 percent or more, 79 percent of patients saw normal heart function return.
More significantly, survival through hospital discharge was even more strongly related to chest compression times. When chest compressions were 20 percent or less of CPR time, survival to discharge was 12 percent. Meanwhile, survival to discharge 25 percent when compressions made up 81 percent or better of CPR efforts.
To learn more about this study:
- read this HealthDay News piece