A myriad of approaches and techniques have been suggested and used in the resuscitation of victims of cardiac arrest. After the demonstration by Beck et al¹ of successful open-chest defibrillation, the application of a more systematic and unifying approach to the management of patients suffering from out-of-hospital sudden death was ushered in by the work of Kouwenhoven et al² almost three decades ago. These investigators convincingly demonstrated that closed-chest cardiac massage combined with artificial ventilation could result in a significant salvage of patients See also p 61. found in cardiac arrest. This initiated the modern era of widespread deployment of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), with CPR training efforts extended to health care professionals and subsequently to the lay public.

Since the landmark conference on the setting of standards and guidelines for CPR and emergency cardiac care in 1973,³ millions of Americans have been trained in this technique and