Closed-Chest Cardiac Resuscitation

EXTERNAL cardiac compression1 represented such a promising contribution to the therapy of cardiac arrest that several studies evaluating its effectiveness have already appeared.1 2 3 These studies, however, have been based on retrospective evaluation of routine hospital records, leaving doubt concerning the completeness and accuracy of their data. Furthermore, they have judged the success of the procedure by the fraction of patients treated who survived to leave the hospital. Although survival is undeniably the ultimate goal of resuscitative procedures, external cardiac compression by itself can only be judged as a means of providing interim circulation during a period of ineffective cardiac action. . . .