Skip Mouth-to-Mouth to Save Heart Attack Victims?

New medical research, recently published in the journal Circulation, finds that heart attack victims given compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation were less likely to die in following years than people given standard mouth-to-mouth CPR. This finding supports an American Heart Association recommendation that the simpler form of CPR is more appropriate for bystanders often intimidated by the prospect of combining chest compressions with rescue breathing. Over 383,000 people in the U.S. suffer cardiac arrests every year; only about 10 percent survive. The study, authored by researchers in Seattle, France and Sweden, tracked more than 3,200 adults who suffered heart attacks and were administered either standard or compression-only CPR. Mortality in the compression-only group was 9% lower than in the standard CPR group, with benefits persisting for up to five years after the event. However, the researchers added that their recommendations don't apply to CPR performed by medical personnel or people who are proficient in rescue breathing. They also apply only to adult victims with heart problems, where cardiac arrest was caused by reasons other than trauma, suffocating or drowning. It is still recommended that pediatric victims suffering cardiac arrest be administered rescue breathing.