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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · CPR and Resuscitation

Chest compressions

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

/ˈtʃest kəmˌpreʃənz/nounCore term

In emergency medicine & first aid, chest compressions means: Hard, fast, rhythmic pushes on the centre of the chest during CPR that squeeze the heart and keep some blood flowing to the brain.

In Turkish: göğüs basısı, göğüs kompresyonu, kalp masajı

How it is used

Usually plural. You start, deliver or pause chest compressions; trainers talk about their rate, depth and quality, and about letting the chest recoil. Teams swap the person doing compressions regularly because good compressions are tiring.

Example sentences

  1. Let's swap after this cycle, your chest compressions are getting shallow.

  2. Keep the pauses in chest compressions as short as possible while the pads go on.

Common collocations

  • start chest compressions
  • high-quality chest compressions
  • pause chest compressions
  • compression rate
  • compression depth
  • CPRShort for cardiopulmonary resuscitation: chest compressions, often with rescue breaths, given to someone whose heart has stopped, to keep blood and oxygen moving to the brain.
  • rescue breathsBreaths that a rescuer blows into a person's lungs, mouth to mouth or through a mask, when that person is not breathing normally.
  • cardiac arrestA sudden stop in the heart's effective pumping, so that blood no longer reaches the brain and the person collapses and stops breathing normally.
  • AEDShort for automated external defibrillator: a portable device that checks the heart rhythm through pads on the chest and gives an electric shock if one is needed.

More terms: CPR and Resuscitation

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.