What is cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)?

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving technique that's useful in many emergencies in which someone's breathing or heartbeat has stopped. For example, when someone has a heart attack or nearly drowns. The American Heart Association recommends starting CPR with hard and fast chest compressions.

What is immediate CPR?

CPR – or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation – is an emergency lifesaving procedure performed when the heart stops beating. Immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest. The American Heart Association invites you to share our vision: a world where no one dies from cardiac arrest.

Is CPR life-saving?

Medical dramas on TV have made people think that CPR is more likely to be life-saving than it really is. One study found that people believed the rate of survival with CPR was up to 75%. Over the last few decades, studies have looked at the actual survival rates for out-of-hospital CPR and come up with much lower numbers:

What is postconditioning injury protection during CPR?

Although nascent, the concept of postconditioning, or reperfusion injury protection, during CPR promises to provide additional benefit by reducing the potential for unintended damage in the first seconds to minutes of reperfusion after a prolonged ischemic insult. 13, 37, 40, 41, 158, 159