American journal of diseases of children (1960)
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Comparative Study
The heart is under the lower third of the sternum. Implications for external cardiac massage.
Current guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation in children state that the heart lies under the midsternum in infancy and descends with age. To verify this statement, we studied 55 patients, aged 1 day to 19 years, including eight premature infants, during either routine chest x-ray films or right-sided heart angiography. ⋯ Analysis of variance indicated that there was no significant difference in this location between age groups. These results suggest that recommendations for external cardiac massage in infants and children may need to be revised.