Abstract
To the Editor. —An Editorial 1 in JAMA discusses the premature termination by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of trials of compression-decompression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), because of lack of informed consent. The addition of a suction phase to conventional CPR is a trivial, innocuous detail that should not require consent. The developers of the Ambu 2 device must certainly have tried its suction on willing volunteers and shown that its worst effect might be minor ecchymoses. In any case, the use of alternate pressure and suction for CPR is described in the August 5,1939, Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift by Dr Rudolph Eisenmenger, Facharzt fur physikalische Therapie, Vienna, Austria. His device, which he called a Biomotor, was a cuirass ventilator that applied alternate positive and negative air pressure to the torso, and was used extensively throughout Europe for mine rescue and other victims of asphyxia as well as polio. He urged
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