When the 2010 report from the American Heart Association (AHA) was published in Circulation, alterations were made to the guidelines for performing CPR. At the time, HSI states that many people mistakenly thought that rescue breathing was no longer recommended altogether.
As the AHA noted, its recommendations were based on an extensive review of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation's (ILCOR) International Consensus on CPR and ECC Science With Treatment Recommendations, which was also published in Circulation in 2010. The data stemmed from an evaluation process, conducted by 356 resuscitation experts from 29 countries over the course of 36 months. In the end, they determined that chest compression should now be the primary focus when performing CPR, followed by freeing the affected individual's airway and rescue breathing. This came after the experts concluded that many bystanders often feel hesitant to perform CPR, knowing that it typically begins by focusing on freeing the airway. However, the AHA did not eliminate the potential need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as a part of CPR.
