Focused  update on Basic Life Support Guidelines by American Heart Association

American Heart Association has come out with the focused update on Guidelines for Basic Life Support. The update has been published in Circulation.

Recommendations for adult basic life support :

The American Heart Association recommendations for adult basic life support incorporate the most recently published evidence and serve as the basis for education and training for laypeople and healthcare providers who perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

• Emergency medical service should perform CPR with cycles of 30 compressions and 2 breaths before placement of an advanced airway.


• Alternatively EMS providers may be asked to perform CPR in cycles of 30 compressions with 2 breaths without interrupting chest compressions to give breaths.


• It is justified for EMS providers to use a rate of 10 breaths per minute (1 breath every 6 seconds) to provide asynchronous ventilation during continuous chest compressions before placement of an advanced airway.


• If an advanced airway (tracheal tube or supraglottic device) has to be inserted during CPR, EMS providers may perform continuous compressions with positive ­pressure ventilation delivered without pausing chest compressions. They may deliver 1 breath every 6 seconds (10 breaths per minute) while continuous chest compressions are being performed.


• If dispatchers' instructions are needed, it is recommended that dispatchers should provide chest compression–only CPR instructions to callers for adults with suspected OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest).


• For adults in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest OHCA, untrained lay rescuers should provide chest compression-only CPR with or without dispatcher assistance.

Recommendations for Pediatric CPR:

This focused update to the American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) follows the Pediatric Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation evidence review

• CPR using chest compressions with rescue breaths should be provided for infants and children in cardiac arrest.


• If bystanders are unwilling or unable to deliver rescue breaths, we recommend that rescuers provide chest compressions for infants and children.

Based on a growing evidence base since the 2015 guidelines update publication, this recommendation reinforces the 2015 guideline.

For further reference log on to :

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/11/06/CIR.0000000000000539.long

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/11/06/CIR.0000000000000540.long