| 'Kiss of life' increases risk after heart attack -
17-03-2007, 10:35 PM
People who collapse from a sudden heart attack should not receive mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, according to a study that overturns the advice given on how bystanders should react in such a situation.
Chest compressions alone - without so-called "rescue breathing" - appear more likely to save people whose hearts have stopped beating and reduce their risk of brain damage.
Ken Nagao of the Surugadai Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues collected information about more than 4000 adults who had suffered a sudden heart attack outside of hospital in the presence of bystanders.
A total of 18% of the people whose hearts had stopped beating received conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), while 11% received chest compressions alone. In the remaining cases none of the bystanders performed CPR on the heart attack victims. | 
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