Resuscitation
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Simplification of the techniques and teaching of resuscitation are advocated as ways of improving skill acquisition and retention. A simple method for teaching hand placement for chest compression has been described but not validated. ⋯ Simplifying the teaching of correct hand placement for chest compression does not appear to lead to improvement in acquisition or retention of the skill. However, it does result in a significant reduction in the length of the pauses between ventilation and chest compression.
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Biography Historical Article
Moritz Schiff and the history of open-chest cardiac massage.
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To describe survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to the interval between collapse and start of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). ⋯ Among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest in whom the interval between collapse and start of CPR was known, we found that in 80% of the cases CPR was started within the first minute after collapse. Among these patients, survival to discharge was twice that of patients in whom CPR was started later. These results highlight the importance of immediate CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrest.
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We investigated the effect of massive pulmonary embolism (MPE) on end tidal CO(2) (etCO(2)) and tested two hypotheses: (1) that etCO(2) can distinguish massive PE from hemorrhagic shock and (2) that PE with cardiac arrest reduces etCO(2) during resuscitation to a greater extent than arrhythmic cardiac arrest. ⋯ Massive PE with shock decreases the etCO(2) and increases the dead space fraction to a greater extent than hemorrhagic shock at the same MAP. Cardiac arrest from PE is associated with extremely low etCO(2) readings during CPR.