A Comparison of the Mouth-to-Mouth and Mouth-to-Airway Methods of Artificial Respiration with the Chest-Pressure Arm-Lift Methods

QUESTIONS may be raised whether effective tidal exchange of air can be expected with the routine application of the currently taught chest-pressure arm-lift methods of resuscitation and whether the experiments upon which the recommendation of these methods were based take the behavior of the natural airway in the unconscious patient into consideration. Apparently, these methods were endorsed on the basis of comparative experiments in anesthetized and curarized adults, whose tracheas were intubated.1 , 2 Waters and Bennett,3 in 1936, and Nims and his associates,4 in 1951, were unable to provide adequate ventilation by these methods. We reinvestigated the problem and found that . . .