Ventilation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Ventilation is essential for oxygenation of the alveoli and arterial blood. Comatose humans have upper airway soft tissue obstruction unless the head is tilted backwards and sometimes, in addition, the jaw thrust forward. In 1960, measurements on comatose humans with or without cardiac arrest, with or without a tracheal tube, showed essentially no ventilation by sternal compressions alone. This led to combining step A (airway control), step B (mouth-to-mouth ventilation), and step C (sternal (cardiac) compressions) into basic life support. In animal models, sternal compressions alone can produce some ventilation with or without a tracheal tube, because the straight upper airways of animals do not obstruct in coma. In witnessed sudden cardiac death, the C-A-B sequence makes physiological sense, but other causes of sudden coma need the A-B-C sequence. Lay persons should continue to be taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation steps A-B-C.