Assignment Literature Review - Essay Example

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is a procedure that is performed on the person in cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation involves rescue breathing to enable provision of oxygen to the individual’s lungs and chest compressions to keep the individual’s blood circulating (Medline). Although the practice of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is over two and a half centuries old (CPR Stats and Facts, AHA) but still majority of the people in America are not able to perform it properly and this is the reason that the survival rate from Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is low.

Peer-reviewed literature suggests that the quality of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitations performed in-hospital is also inconsistent. It is worth mentioning that American Heart Association had made recommendations for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC) in 1974, 1980, 1986 and 1992 and the European Resuscitation Council in 1992, 1996 and 1998 then in 2000 the International Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiac Care, “Guidelines 2000” were finalised and these were evidence based (American Heart Association, in collaboration with the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, 2000).

Extant published literature has listed the following major drawbacks in traditional Cardiopulomnary Resuscitation (Murthy & Hooda, 2009): 1. Bystanders are more willing to perform chest-compression-only resuscitation for a person who unexpectedly collapses an approach that all agree is dramatically better than doing nothing. 2. Interrupting chest compressions for ventilation during cardiac arrest decreases survival. 3. Positive pressure ventilation during CPR for cardiac arrest increases intra-thoracic pressures, which decreases venous return to the thorax and subsequent perfusion of the heart and the brain.

One of the leading practitioners has commented that despite its long standing existence, it is a serious problem that 70–80% of bystanders who witness cardiac arrest are unwilling or unable to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (Ewy G , 2007). Furthermore, it has been suggested that Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation may be good for patients with respiratory arrest. In light of this it is said that a new system of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation called Cardiocerebral Resuscitation (CCR) or Continuous-chest-compression CPR (CCR-CPR) or chest-compression-only CPR or Cardiac-only Resuscitation, specially for out of hospital cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation in adults (Ewy, 2003).

The main change in Cardiocerebral Resuscitation with respect to Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is that in the case of Cardiocerebral Resuscitation the chest compressions are administered nonstop. Numerous studies and significant peer-reviewed research has supports Cardiocerebral Resuscitation (CCR). This effort of devising Cardiocerebral Resuscitation was based on the studies carried out by other researchers in the past. Such studies were aimed at performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation with chest compressions alone (Hallstrom, Cobb, Johnson, & Copass, 2000).

A team of researchers have posited that in the case of realistic model of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest, continuous chest compressions without assisted ventilations resulted in significantly better 24-hour postresuscitation neurologically normal