A new study from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona finds that chest compressions may be the most important factor in surviving a heart attack.
The study specifically looked at cardiac arrest that happens outside of a hospital — when people must often rely on friends, family, and emergency medical personnel to save them. EMS personnel in the study were tracked both before and after training in a new style of CPR.
Study authors have coined a new phrase — and a new style of CPR — that can potentially triple the survival rate of people who have an out-of-hospital heart attack. Call it MICR: minimally interrupted cardiac resuscitation.
MICR focuses on maximizing blood flow to the heart and brain. Here’s how the Mayo Clinic suggests performing MICR:
- Perform two hundred uninterrupted chest compressions.
- If a defibrillator is available, administer a single shock.
- Perform two hundred more chest compressions.
- Check pulse.
The study authors also suggest early use of epinephrine to stimulate the heart and delaying the use of a breathing tube inserted into the trachea.
Some interesting study results: the survival rate in the old style CPR group was barely two percent. Compare that with the more than five percent survival rate in people treated with MICR. A smaller subgroup of patients with a “shockable” heart rhythm after cardiac arrest saw an even bigger boost in survival rates. Before MICR, just under five percent of victims survived. After MICR training, more than seventeen percent of patients survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
So what makes MICR so different? Poor survival rates are strongly related to prolonged inadequate blood flow to the heart and brain. During traditional CPR efforts, there may not be enough blood flowing to the heart and brain because the person administering CPR may be stopping compressions every minute or less to give rescue breathing.
In the meantime, what should you do? If you’ve never taken a CPR class, now would be a good time to sign up.