The use of cough cardiopulmonary resuscitation in clinical practice.

In summary, the cough CPR technique uses physiologic principles similar to those that maintain circulation during chest compression with a number of significant advantages over the latter. At the onset of lethal arrhythmias such as asystole, profound bradycardia, VT, and VF, coughing may assist in maintaining consciousness and an optimum systolic blood pressure. It may also generate the mechanism required to convert the arrhythmia. The simplicity and effectiveness of this technique warrants its consideration for greater clinical use by hospital staff in all monitored settings. It has been noted, however, that clinical research is indicated to more closely examine the proposed cause and effect relationship between cough and arrhythmia conversion and to compare the clinical efficacy between the cough CPR technique and chest blow or other clinical practice measures.