subject: CPR Guidelines 2010: What Are The Major Modifications And Why They're Crucial? [print this page] CPR Guidelines 2010: What Are The Major Modifications And Why They're Crucial?
The AHA has released the new CPR guidelines and they contain a few big changes to the CPR steps. Even if you already hold your CPR certification you might wish to think about recertification based on those changes. What's different now?
The first key change introduced affects the BLS (basic life support) series. If you are a trained rescuer i.e you already hold a CPR certification you have to change from ABC to CAB when it comes to CPR steps. In your CPR class you'll have been told that you always check airway and then deliver rescue breaths before starting chest compressions. These recommendations have changed.
New research show that CPR had to be made easier so that more normal people would attend classes, obtain their certification and be ready and willing to perform CPR if required. Having listened to the normal public and looked at medical data, the American Heart Association has realised that making people perform mouth to mouth might be costing lives. People who have had a cardiac arrest generally die from oxygen starvation. If you begin chest compressions you could get the heart beating and blood flowing around the system rapidly. If you use an AED your results for example whether the casualty lives or dies need to be even better.
The new CPR guidelines suggest that if you're alone you must call 911 and then take out the AED, an electronic device that will aid you to return the heart to its usual rhythm. If the AED isn't available begin manual chest compressions. Anybody can push hard and fast on the centre of the chest. Push down minimum 2 inches and don't forget to allow a bit of time for the chest to return to its normal position. Keep chest compressions going until aid or an AED arrives. The compression rate should be 100 per minute. If it helps, the song "staying alive" has the right beat that you should follow when administering CPR. The patient has a better chance of survival if you perform more compressions.
Some people are thinking that the new rules suggest that mouth to mouth is no longer needed. This is not the case as the AHA CPR guidelines explain. What the AHA has said is that where someone is not trained in CPR then they should proceed with chest compression only CPR as that's better than nothing. It is much simpler for the EMS dispatcher to talk somebody into trying chest compressions than to try to teach somebody how to do rescue breaths. If you're a trained rescuer the recommendations to perform rescue breaths still stands but you should start with chest compressions first.
