Improving cardiac arrest survival

In a three-year study to begin this fall, King County emergency medical responders from area fire departments will alternately deliver two CPR interventions to people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The first  study will compare rescue breathing using a bag mask to deliver breaths versus an airway designed to deliver breaths more directly to the lungs.

“Both treatments are considered appropriate strategies for airway management, but it is unclear whether one approach has additional lifesaving benefit,” said Dr. Thomas Rea, professor (General Internal Medicine) and King County Medic One Emergency Medical Services medical director.

The second CPR intervention being studied is chest compressions. “We don’t know whether 100 compressions or 110 or 120 is better, in terms of the person’s regaining a working heartbeat,” said Rea.