Letter by Ristagno and Gullo regarding article, "Survival is similar after standard treatment and chest compression only in out-of-hospital bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation".

BACKGROUND We sought to compare the 1-month survival rates among patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who had been given bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in relation to whether they had received standard CPR with chest compression plus mouth-to-mouth ventilation or chest compression only. METHODS AND RESULTS All patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who received bystander CPR and who were reported to the Swedish Cardiac Arrest Register between 1990 and 2005 were included. Crew-witnessed cases were excluded. Among 11,275 patients, 73% (n=8209) received standard CPR, and 10% (n=1145) received chest compression only. There was no significant difference in 1-month survival between patients who received standard CPR (1-month survival=7.2%) and those who received chest compression only (1-month survival=6.7%). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who received bystander CPR, there was no significant difference in 1-month survival between a standard CPR program with chest compression plus mouth-to-mouth ventilation and a simplified version of CPR with chest compression only.