There was a case report published in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine last year about interposed abdominal compression CPR (IAC-CPR).  Personally, I’ve never heard anything of the sort and had to take a deeper look into it.  Essentially, you need two people to do compressions, one for the chest and one for the abdomen.  The abdominal compressor performs CPR with their hands about 5cm above the umbilicus and compressing about as deep as you would need to palpate the abdominal aorta pulse.  Both compress at the same rate and alternate their compressions; chest-abdomen-chest-abdomen and so on.  Theoretically, the abdominal compressor is acting as an external intra-aortic balloon pump.  By compressing the aorta during diastole, there is retrograde blood flow back into the coronaries.  Additionally, this abdominal compression increases venous return and promotes forward flow of the intrathoracic blood pool.  There have been no intra-abdominal injuries noted in survivors besides one pediatric traumatic pancreatitis reported in 1984.  The most recent review of IAC-CPR in Resuscitation showed significant improvements in the probability of achieving ROSC in the pre-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrests when compared to standard CPR.  The question for me is why are we not doing this more? Is there harm in trying it if the person is already in cardiac arrest?

Post by: Terrance McGovern DO, MPH (@drtmcg13)