Sudden cardiac arrests can be treated by administering Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to the victim, aiming to get his heart working again. The goal of CPR is to renew the circulation of blood. This is done by compressing the victim’s chest to press the heart between the ribs, and at the same time breathing into the victim’s mouth to force oxygen into his mouth. CPR is a technique which is performed as an emergency and temporarymeasure to fill the organs with oxygen until heart function is restored. Research says that only about 15% of victims who get CPR are survivors.

There are also certain results of CPR that may have an adverse effect on your health.

– Broken ribs: The chest compressions given in CPR can sometime lead to broken or fractured ribs. This is especially true for elderly victims as their bones are brittle. Fractured ribs are painful but it can get worse if they puncture your lungs. If this causes mechanical ventilation, you may need a chest tube to be inserted to get the lungs inflated again. The liver and spleen may also be damaged with broken ribs. However, without CPR the victim may surely die, so there is no choice but to continue CPR even when there is a possibility of broken ribs.

– Vomiting: Vomiting is known to be the most common adverse effect of CPR. The victim is unconscious and cannot breathe and so is unable to remove the fluid from his mouth. If it is not removed, it may cause lung aspiration and the aspirated vomit may further block his airway. When a victim starts vomiting in the middle of a CPR cycle, he must be turned to one side and his mouth cleared before continuing with CPR.

– Damage to the brain: Normally a human body receives around 21 percent of oxygen. However, during CPR the victim receives only about 16 percent oxygen per rescue breath. Also the involuntary heart pumping gives only one-fourth oxygen and blood to the various organs of the body. This means the brain also receives less oxygen, which can lead to brain damage. That is why CPR must be performed immediately as brain damage can result after minimum of 4 minutes and maximum of 10 minutes after stoppage of oxygen to the brain.

– Aspiration Pneumonia: A broken tooth or unnoticed vomit can get aspirated into the lungs leading to pneumonia. Pneumonia is very dangerous to your health as it leads to problems in recovery and can even lead to death.

– Abdominal distension: When mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is given to the victim, air is actually forced into his lungs. Some of this air gets forced into his stomach while breathing into the victim’s mouth. This leads to abdominal distension which in turn cause vomiting and compressions of the lungs. This creates a pressure and it gets difficult to re-inflate the lungs. Once CPR is administered in a health care facility, a naso-gastric tube should be inserted which decreases the chances complications of abdominal distension.

It is important to keep these side effects of CPR in mind before you administer it to anyone. It is also good to be knowledgeable about if it you may be a recipient of CPR at some point of time.

To learn more, visit our website about your health issues today and bookmark it to share with others!

To learn more, visit our website http://www.cprexams.com about your health issues today and bookmark it to share with others!

Author Bio: To learn more, visit our website about your health issues today and bookmark it to share with others!

Category: Advice
Keywords: your health, cpr