Thoracic pump theory

The mechanistic claim that chest compression drives circulation primarily by raising pressure across the entire thoracic cavity — acting on all the large vessels together, not on the heart alone as a direct pump — as opposed to the "cardiac pump" model of the heart being squeezed directly between sternum and spine. George W. Crile articulated an early version of this theory around 1903, decades before Kouwenhoven's group's 1958 discovery of chest-compression CPR, in a report reproduced by a 2009 historical review: "Pressure upon the thorax alone is capable of producing an artificial circulation... by its action upon all the large vessels: arteries, veins and capillaries together." A 1999 sociology-of-science paper (Timmermans, unread this session, paywalled) reportedly frames a later 1962–1968 contest between thoracic-pump and cardiac-pump models as part of this same discovery's history — a thread flagged as a further lead, not yet confirmed, since that paper could not be fetched. This is a stable, established physiological concept, not an emerging term — it goes straight to hub on the strength of being the theoretical fulcrum the vault's priority-antedating claim about Kouwenhoven's discovery is measured against.

References

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