This months issue of American Journal of Emergency Medicine describes a new method of resuscitation by abdominal compressions only. As is quite well known CPR by itself is not very effective: succeeding in only a percentage of patients when instituted. The purpose of study was to determine the amount of coronary perfusion obtainable with OAC-CPR during VF compared with the coronary perfusion with the normally beating heart in the same animal. A second objective was to determine coronary perfusion during VF using standard chest-compression CPR and to compare it with the coronary perfusion for the normally beating heart in the same animal. A third objective was to compare the OAC-CPR ratios with the ratios obtained with standard chest-compression CPR. This latter comparison was designed to quantitate the superiority of OAC-CPR over standard chest-compression CPR.
Rhythmic abdominal compression-CPR works by forcing blood from the blood vessels around the abdominal organs, an area known to contain about 25 percent of the body’s total blood volume. This blood is then redirected to other sites, including the circulation around the heart.
The advantages listed for only abdominal compressions(OAC) includes-OAC-CPR eliminating the possibilities of rib fractures. It also provides substantially more coronary perfusion than standard chest-compression CPR. With OAC-CPR, Ao(aortic arch) pressure exceeds RA(Right Atrial) pressure during almost the entire compression-decompression cycle, thereby providing a high coronary perfusion. With standard chest-compression CPR, there is some retrograde coronary flow because RA pressure exceeds Ao pressure during a portion of the compression-decompression cycle. In this preliminary study, there was no evidence of damage to visceral organs found by the researchers. Read the whole article here Via Elsevier
A summary of the arcticle can also be found at Reuters health