Legit Reviews

The revised guidelines issued Monday by the American Heart Association on cardiopulmonary resuscitation advise giving 30 chest compressions — instead of 15 — for every two rescue breaths.

"Basically, the more times someone pushes on the chest, the better off the patient is," said Dr. Michael Sayre, an Ohio State University emergency medicine professor who helped develop the new guidelines.

"When you stop compressions, blood flow stops," said Mary Fran Hazinski, a clinical nurse specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who also helped develop the guidelines.

"You have to make up for that lost ground," she said. "We think that the fewer the interruptions, the better for blood flow."

The guidelines also recommend cooling cardiac arrest patients for 12 to 24 hours to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Two significant studies have shown that practice can improve survival and brain function for those who are comatose after initial resuscitation.