Heimlich maneuver

Heimlich maneuver An emergency treatment for obstruction of the airway in adults. The Heimlich maneuver may be needed when someone chokes on a piece of food that has “gone down the wrong way.” To perform the Heimlich maneuver, a rescuer stands behind the victim, wraps his or her arms around the victim’s waist, makes a fist with one hand, and holds the fist with the thumb side just below the breast bone at the top of the abdomen. The rescuer places his or her other hand over the fist and uses it to pull sharply into the top of the victim’s abdomen and forcefully press up into the victim’s diaphragm to expel the obstruction (most commonly food). The Heimlich maneuver should be repeated as necessary. If the Heimlich maneuver is unsuccessful, an emergency tracheostomy may be necessary to prevent suffocation. Named for the US surgeon Henry Heimlich, who 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. See also airway obstruction; tracheostomy.