Mistakes that Kill during Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

​Hanging out with cardiopulmonary researchers effectively imprinted on my psyche that we fail our patients during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in many ways. Unfortunately, too many patients who could have walked out of the hospital after experiencing death don't because of our mistakes in CPR. It's critical to find the resuscitation sweet spot for each patient and to never waver during a CPR event. These are the ways we can kill our patients during cardiopulmonary resuscitation:Too Slow or Too FastThe recommended heart rate for cardiopulmonary resuscitation was 60 compressions/minute in 1960. (JAMA 1960;173:1064.) Observational human studies relating compression rate to outcomes, however, have established a sweet spot somewhere between 100 and 120 compressions per minute. (Crit Care Med 2015;43[4]:840.) External chest compressions are the primary intervention performed in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and not doing them correctly has the greatest impact on the outcome. Without any doubt, compressing too slow or too fast is deadly during CPR.Too Shallow or Too DeepPart of the problem with compressing too fast is that the depth of compressions suffers dramatically, and the compressions become too shallow. (Crit Care Med 2015;43[4]:840.) Too deep compressions simply don't appear to add any benefit to resuscitation end-points and may cause unwanted trauma such as broken ribs and increased intracranial pressure (ICP), resulting in reduced cerebral blood flow. C...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs