Artificial Respiration

artificial respiration, breathing induced by some manipulative technique when natural respiration has ceased or is faltering. Such techniques, if applied quickly and properly, can prevent some deaths from drowning, choking, strangulation, suffocation, carbon monoxide poisoning, and electric shock. Resuscitation by inducing artificial respiration consists chiefly of two actions: (1) establishing and maintaining an open air passage from the upper respiratory tract (mouth, throat, and pharynx) to the lungs and (2) exchanging air and carbon dioxide in the terminal air sacs of the lungs while the heart is still functioning. To be successful such efforts must be started as soon as possible and continued until the victim is again breathing.

Various methods of artificial respiration, most based on the application of external force to the lungs, were once used. Methods that were popular particularly in the early 20th century but were later supplanted by more effective techniques included the modified Silvester chest-pressure–arm-lift method, the Schafer method (or prone-pressure method, developed by English physiologist Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer), and the Holger-Nielsen method. In the Silvester method, the victim was placed faceup, and the shoulders were elevated to allow the head to drop backward. The rescuer kneeled at the victim’s head, facing him, grasped the victim’s wrists, and crossed them over the victim’s lower chest. The rescuer rocked forward, pressing on the victim’s chest, then backward, stretching the victim’s arms outward and upward. The cycle was repeated about 12 times per minute.

In the 1950s Austrian-born anesthesiologist Peter Safar and colleagues found that obstruction of the upper airway by the tongue and soft palate rendered existing artificial ventilation techniques largely ineffective. The researchers proceeded to develop techniques to overcome obstruction, such as lifting of the chin, and subsequently demonstrated that mouth-to-mouth respiration was superior to other methods in the quantity of air that could be delivered in each respiratory cycle (tidal volume). Mouth-to-mouth breathing soon after became the most widely used method of artificial respiration. The person using mouth-to-mouth breathing places the victim on his back, clears the mouth of foreign material and mucus, lifts the lower jaw forward and upward to open the air passage, places his own mouth over the victim’s mouth in such a way as to establish a leak-proof seal, and clamps the nostrils. The rescuer then alternately breathes into the victim’s mouth and lifts his own mouth away, permitting the victim to exhale. If the victim is a child, the rescuer may cover both the victim’s mouth and the nose. The rescuer breathes 12 times each minute (15 times for a child and 20 for an infant) into the victim’s mouth. If a victim was choking before falling unconscious, the Heimlich maneuver may be used to clear the airway before beginning mouth-to-mouth respiration.

Safar’s method was later combined with rhythmic chest compressions that were discovered by American electrical engineer William B. Kouwenhoven and colleagues to restore circulation, giving rise to the basic method of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). In 2008, after researchers determined that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation too often resulted in slowed or stopped circulation, a hands-only method for adult victims, which uses only continuous chest presses, was adopted by the American Heart Association (see cardiopulmonary resuscitation).