The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is shining the national spotlight on a new life saving technique for out of hospital cardiac arrest developed in Arizona.

The March 12 issue of JAMA features a study by an Arizona team led by Dr. Bentley Bobrow, Medical Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services’ Bureau of EMS & Trauma System. The study focuses on Cardiocerebral Resuscitation or “CCR,” a cutting edge alternative to standard paramedic resuscitation developed at The University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.

The report in JAMA, one of the world’s foremost medical journals, showed survival rates following out of hospital cardiac arrest increased three-fold when emergency medical personnel used CCR, which focuses on continuous chest compressions and delays placement of a breathing tube.

“Out of hospital cardiac arrest is a major public health problem and a leading cause of death,” the Arizona authors wrote. “In 2004, the average survival of patients with out of hospital cardiac arrest was 3 percent in the state of Arizona.”

“We encourage all emergency medical providers to evaluate their survival rates and, if they are not satisfactory, to institute Cardiocerebral Resuscitation and see if it improves survival,” says Gordon A. Ewy, MD, who co-authored the JAMA article. Dr. Ewy heads the Sarver Heart Center at The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, whose Resuscitation Research Group developed the Cardiocerebral Resuscitation technique.

CCR is a new approach to out of hospital cardiac arrest for emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. More than 2,000 EMS firefighters have been trained in the protocol that focuses on maximizing blood flow to the heart and brain through a series of coordinated interventions.

The three-year study includes data from 62 Arizona EMS agencies. It evaluated 886 individuals with cardiac arrest; of those, 218 occurred before CCR training and only four survived. After the training, survival rates jumped markedly: Of 668 individuals studied, 36 survived.

Editor’s Note: To see the JAMA news release and full study, visit, http://www.jamamedia.org.  Also, interviews with Dr. Bobrow and cardiac arrest survivors are available.