Heart attack victims 'don't need mouth-to-mouth'

The mouth-to-mouth technique - the staple of first aid training for a decade - is being dropped from official advice in the U.S.

Instead, bystanders are told to use only chest compressions.

The change to American guidelines comes after studies showing that hands-only cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) works just as well as combining the two actions.

The rules are also designed to encourage more people to save lives.

Surveys reveal that too many are put off giving any first aid because they are squeamish about giving the kiss of life to a stranger.

Mouth-to-mouth should still be used when children collapse, or for victims of near-drowning, drug overdose or carbon monoxide poisoning, the guidelines say.

The current advice from British health experts is to use traditional CPR, which includes the kiss of life, but that anybody reluctant to use their mouth should go ahead with chest presses alone.

The Resuscitation Council is reviewing the rules, however, and the American advice is sure to be noted.

Hands-only CPR calls for uninterrupted chest presses - 100 a minute - until paramedics take over or a defibrillator is available.

This action should be taken only for adults who stop breathing and are unresponsive.

The odds are that they are in cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops.

In such a case, the victim still has ample air in the lungs and blood, and compressions keep blood flowing to the brain, heart and other organs.

A child who collapses is more likely primarily to have breathing problems, and in that case mouth-to-mouth should be used to get air into the lungs and bloodstream.

That also applies to adults who suffer lack of oxygen from a near-drowning, drug overdose, or carbon monoxide poisoning.

Dr Gordon Ewy, who has been campaigning for hands-only CPR for 15 years, said he was "dancing in the streets" over the change.

Dr Ewy, director of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Centre in Tucson, said it takes too long to stop compressions to give two breaths - 16 seconds for the average person.

Britain's St John Ambulance backed the use of compressions but not in all cases.

The organisation's Dr Meng Aw-Yong said: "We know people can be reluctant to give mouth to mouth and so, based on medical research, in this situation we advise people performing first aid to do chest compressions because it's better to do something than nothing."