Maneuver, Heimlich

Maneuver, Heimlich
An emergency treatment for obstruction of the airway in adults. It may be needed when someone chokes on a piece of food that has "gone down the wrong way." To perform the Heimlich maneuver, stand behind the victim, wrap your arms around their waist, makes a fist with one hand and holds the fist with the thumb side just below the breast bone. Place your other hand over this first and use it to pull sharply into the top of the choking person’s stomach and forcefully presses up into the victim's diaphragm to expel the obstruction (most commonly food). Repeat as necessary. In the early 1970s the American surgeon Henry Heimlich noted that food and other objects that caused choking by blocking the airway from the mouth to the lungs were not expelled by giving sharp blows to the back. In 1974 he devised a new method that he tested on laboratory dogs. The new manual thrust method — the "Heimlich maneuver" — is now in standard use. If the Heimlich maneuver is unsuccessful, an emergency tracheostomy may be needed to prevent suffocation.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

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  • Maneuver — Maneuver, manoeuvre (also spelled manœuvre or manoeuver from the French) may be a synonym for strategy or tactic. It is the manipulation of a situation in order to gain some advantage. Military or naval movement Military exercise Maneuver warfare …   Wikipedia

  • Heimlich maneuver — 1975, named for U.S. physician Henry Jay Heimlich (b. 1920) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Heimlich maneuver — ☆ Heimlich maneuver [hīm′lik ] n. [after H. J. Heimlich (1920 ), U.S. surgeon] an emergency technique used to dislodge an object stuck in the windpipe: air is forced up the windpipe by applying sudden, sharp pressure to the abdomen just below the …   English World dictionary

  • Heimlich maneuver — An emergency treatment for obstruction of the airway in adults. It may be needed when someone chokes on a piece of food that has gone down the wrong way. To perform the Heimlich maneuver, stand behind the victim, wrap your arms around their waist …   Medical dictionary

  • Heimlich maneuver — /huym lik/ an emergency rescue procedure for application to someone choking on a foreign object, in which the rescuer places a fist between the victim s lower ribs or upper abdomen from behind and exerts sudden pressure in the form of thrusts of… …   Universalium

  • maneuver — A planned movement or procedure. [Fr. manoeuvre, fr. L. manu operari, to work by hand] Adson m. SYN: Adson test. Barlow m. test for hip instability, with dislocation occurring with flexion …   Medical dictionary

  • Heimlich maneuver — noun Etymology: Henry J. Heimlich b1920 American surgeon Date: 1974 the manual application of sudden upward pressure on the upper abdomen of a choking victim to force a foreign object from the trachea …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Heimlich maneuver — upward thrust on abdomen, performed on choking victims (developed by Dr Henry Heimlich) …   Inventors, Inventions

  • Heimlich maneuver — Heim′lich maneu ver [[t]ˈhaɪm lɪk[/t]] n. med an emergency procedure to aid a person choking on food or some other object by applying sudden pressure with an inward and upward thrust of the fist to the upper abdomen to force the obstruction from… …   From formal English to slang

  • Heimlich maneuver — noun an emergency procedure to help someone who is choking because food is lodged in the trachea • Syn: ↑Heimlich manoeuvere • Hypernyms: ↑emergency procedure …   Useful english dictionary

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