artificial respiration
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What is artificial respiration?
Artificial respiration is a technique used to induce breathing when natural respiration has ceased or is faltering. It involves creating and maintaining an open airway and exchanging air and carbon dioxide in the lungs while the heart is still working. One method of artificial respiration is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, where a rescuer breathes into the victim's mouth while clamping the nostrils shut, allowing the chest to rise and deflate. Another modern form is known as "hands-only" CPR, which requires chest presses until medical personnel arrive. If applied quickly and properly, artificial respiration can prevent deaths from various causes, including drowning, choking, and electric shock.
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When might someone need artificial respiration?
Artificial respiration, or artificial ventilation, is needed when natural breathing has stopped or is failing. This may result from various conditions, including drowning, choking, strangulation, suffocation, carbon monoxide poisoning, electric shock, traumatic brain injury, or stroke. It is an emergency procedure that aims to maintain an open airway and facilitate the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs until the person can breathe on their own or until emergency help arrives.
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How does artificial respiration help a person who can't breathe?
Artificial respiration uses manipulative techniques to induce breathing when natural respiration has ceased or is faltering. It helps maintain an open airway from the upper respiratory tract to the lungs and facilitates the exchange of air and carbon dioxide in the lungs while the heart is still functioning.
Mouth-to-mouth breathing involves placing the victim on their back, clearing the mouth, lifting the jaw to open the airway, sealing your mouth over theirs, and clamping the nostrils. The rescuer breathes into the victim's mouth about 12 times per minute, allowing exhalation between breaths. If the victim was choking, the Heimlich maneuver may be used first to clear the airway.
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What are some common methods of artificial respiration?
Artificial respiration, or artificial ventilation, refers to breathing induced via manipulative techniques when natural respiration has ceased or is faltering. Such methods aim to maintain an open airway and exchange air and carbon dioxide in the lungs while the heart is still functioning.
Common methods include:
* Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation This involves the rescuer creating a seal over the victim's mouth (or mouth and nose for a child), pinching the nostrils, and breathing into the victim's mouth to inflate the lungs.
* Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) CPR combines rhythmic chest compressions with artificial respiration. The rescuer performs chest presses at a rate of 100 compressions per minute.
* Heimlich maneuver This is applied if the person is choking. It involves the rescuer applying upward thrusts to the abdomen to expel any foreign object from the windpipe.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation performed?
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a crucial component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), providing artificial respiration when someone's breathing has stopped.
To perform it, place the person on their back and ensure their airway is open by lifting their chin. If the victim was choking, the Heimlich maneuver may be used to clear the airway before beginning mouth-to-mouth respiration. Seal your mouth over theirs, pinch their nostrils shut, and breathe into their mouth, watching for their chest to rise. Allow the chest to deflate naturally and repeat this process about 12 times per minute. If the victim is a child, the rescuer may cover both the victim’s mouth and the nose.
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What safety steps should be followed when giving artificial respiration?
When administering artificial respiration, remember that speed and proper technique are crucial. Here are the recommended steps:
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Open Air Passage Ensure the casualty is lying on their back. Clear the mouth of any obstructions. Lift the chin to open the airway. If the victim was choking, perform the Heimlich maneuver first.
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Mouth-to-Mouth Respiration Seal your mouth over the victim's, pinching their nostrils. Breathe into their mouth, watching for chest rise. Remove your mouth to allow exhalation. For a child, cover both mouth and nose.
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CPR Combination Integrate with chest compressions for CPR. Compressions are now prioritized in adult cases.
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Emergency Evaluation Check the circulatory, respiratory, and central nervous systems. Note breathing, pulse, complexion, and pupil response.
Continue until the person breathes independently or until medical help arrives.
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artificial respiration, breathing induced by some manipulative technique when natural respiration has ceased or is faltering. Such techniques, if applied quickly and properly, can prevent some deaths from drowning, choking, strangulation, suffocation, carbon monoxide poisoning, and electric shock. Resuscitation by inducing artificial respiration consists chiefly of two actions: (1) establishing and maintaining an open air passage from the upper respiratory tract (mouth, throat, and pharynx) to the lungs and (2) exchanging air and carbon dioxide in the terminal air sacs of the lungs while the heart is still functioning. To be successful such efforts must be started as soon as possible and continued until the victim is again breathing.
Various methods of artificial respiration, most based on the application of external force to the lungs, were once used. Methods that were popular particularly in the early 20th century but were later supplanted by more effective techniques included the modified Silvester chest-pressure–arm-lift method, the Schafer method (or prone-pressure method, developed by English physiologist Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer), and the Holger-Nielsen method. In the Silvester method, the victim was placed faceup, and the shoulders were elevated to allow the head to drop backward. The rescuer kneeled at the victim’s head, facing him, grasped the victim’s wrists, and crossed them over the victim’s lower chest. The rescuer rocked forward, pressing on the victim’s chest, then backward, stretching the victim’s arms outward and upward. The cycle was repeated about 12 times per minute.
In the 1950s Austrian-born anesthesiologist Peter Safar and colleagues found that obstruction of the upper airway by the tongue and soft palate rendered existing artificial ventilation techniques largely ineffective. The researchers proceeded to develop techniques to overcome obstruction, such as lifting of the chin, and subsequently demonstrated that mouth-to-mouth respiration was superior to other methods in the quantity of air that could be delivered in each respiratory cycle (tidal volume). Mouth-to-mouth breathing soon after became the most widely used method of artificial respiration. The person using mouth-to-mouth breathing places the victim on his back, clears the mouth of foreign material and mucus, lifts the lower jaw forward and upward to open the air passage, places his own mouth over the victim’s mouth in such a way as to establish a leak-proof seal, and clamps the nostrils. The rescuer then alternately breathes into the victim’s mouth and lifts his own mouth away, permitting the victim to exhale. If the victim is a child, the rescuer may cover both the victim’s mouth and the nose. The rescuer breathes 12 times each minute (15 times for a child and 20 for an infant) into the victim’s mouth. If a victim was choking before falling unconscious, the Heimlich maneuver may be used to clear the airway before beginning mouth-to-mouth respiration.
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Safar’s method was later combined with rhythmic chest compressions that were discovered by American electrical engineer William B. Kouwenhoven and colleagues to restore circulation, giving rise to the basic method of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). In 2008, after researchers determined that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation too often resulted in slowed or stopped circulation, a hands-only method for adult victims, which uses only continuous chest presses, was adopted by the American Heart Association (see cardiopulmonary resuscitation).