Artificial Respiration

Artificial respiration is the act of assisting or stimulating respiration, a metabolic process referring to the overall exchange of gases in the body by pulmonary ventilation, external respiration, and internal respiration. Assistance takes many forms, but generally entails providing air for a person who is not breathing or is not making sufficient respiratory effort on their own (although it must be used on a patient with a beating heart or as part of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to achieve the internal respiration).

Pulmonary anton ventilation (and hence external parts of respiration) is achieved through manual insufflation of the lungs either by the rescuer blowing into the patient's lungs, or by using a mechanical device to do so. This method of insufflation has been proved more effective than methods which involve mechanical manipulation of the patient's chest or arms, such as the Silvester method. It is also known as Expired Air Resuscitation (EAR), Expired Air Ventilation (EAV), mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, rescue breathing or colloquially the kiss of life.

Artificial respiration is a part of most protocols for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) making it an essential skill for first aid. In some situations, artificial respiration is also performed separately, for instance in near-drowning and opiate overdoses. The performance of artificial respiration in its own is now limited in most protocols to health professionals, whereas lay first aiders are advised to undertake full CPR in any case where the patient is not breathing sufficiently.

Mechanical ventilation involves the use of a mechanical ventilator to move air in and out of the lungs when an individual is unable to breathe on his or her own, for example during surgery with general anesthesia or when an individual is in a coma.