CHOP Critical Care Experts Advocate for Raising CPR Quality

June 27, 2013 — An expert in critical care at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is the lead author of a new consensus statement just published by the American Heart Association (AHA), calling for greater attention to improving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) throughout the U.S.

Peter Meaney, MD, MPH, led the group that published its statement June 25 in Circulation, the AHA journal. The statement points out that, every year, cardiac arrest occurs in more than half a million adults and children, of whom fewer than 15 percent survive.

While there have been huge advances in CPR, said Meaney, there is wide variety in the quality of CPR. Outside of hospitals, 3 to 16 of patients survive cardiac arrests, while 12 to 22 percent survive inside hospitals.

The consensus statement offers specific recommendations for professional rescuers, such as guidelines for performing chest compressions and providing rescue breaths. Meaney and several other CHOP Critical Care experts have participated in AHA groups that research CPR and previously developed these recommendations at a Resuscitation Summit. Robert Berg, MD, is a co-author of the consensus statement, and along with Meaney, Vinay Nadkarni, MD, Dana Niles, and Robert Sutton, MD, were among a select national group that the AHA invited to the Summit.

The bottom line, added Meaney, is that improving the quality of CPR can save more lives.