Successful CPR is not necessarily determined by the outcome, but rather the process itself. Meaning, are you meeting the goals of successful CPR by providing good perfusion (blood flow) through quality compressions and good oxygenation by providing good ventilations?

So, I would say the most common reason for unsuccessful CPR is poorly delivered compressions. This can be caused by a few things.

Here are the most common reasons for unsuccessful CPR:

1. The rescuer does not have proper hand placement on the chest. The heel of the hand needs to be directly on the sternum. With the rescuer’s shoulders directly over the center of the chest and your arms locked out, push hard, and push fast.
   
   When your hands are in the wrong place on the chest you will cause damage to the ribs and xiphoid process, that little bone at the very bottom of our sternum. And just as bad or even worse is you will not be circulating much blood, which is the whole point to CPR.
2. The rescuer does not push deep enough and fast enough. You must push deep enough, around 21/2 inches in depth to move enough blood to affect good perfusion.
   
   You must also push fast, meaning delivering at least 100-120 compressions per minute. This will deliver oxygenated blood to the brain, which is necessary to minimize any brain damage.
3. The rescuer does not give good quality ventilations. To deliver good quality ventilations, or breaths you must proper head tilt, chin lift to remove the tongue from the back of the throat.
   Then create a tight seal over the victim’s mouth with yours and breathe two breaths. Each one lasting about one second each. And you cannot forget to pinch the victim’s nose closed, so your breaths do not escape out the nose.

Even though that sounds like a lot of information, it only amounts to 2 things. Proper chest compressions and good ventilations.

I hope this helps. Remember everyone should have CPR training. Our online CPR certification training class is quick and simple and covers all these important details to proper lifesaving CPR skills.