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(Circulation. 2005;112:IV-12 – IV-18.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

2005 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care

Part 3: Overview of CPR

	Introduction

 
We have always known that CPR is not a single skill but a series of assessments and interventions. More recently we have become aware that cardiac arrest is not a single problem and that the steps of CPR may need to vary depending on the type or etiology of the cardiac arrest. At the 2005 Consensus Conference researchers debated all aspects of detection and treatment of cardiac arrest. Yet the last summation returned to the beginning question: how do we get more bystanders and healthcare providers to learn CPR and perform it well?

	Epidemiology

 
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death in the United States and Canada.^1–3 Although estimates of the annual number of deaths due to out-of-hospital SCA vary widely,^1,2,4,5 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the United States approximately 330 000 people die annually in the out-of-hospital and emergency department settings from coronary heart disease. About 250 000 of these deaths occur in the out-of-hospital setting.^1,6 The annual incidence of SCA in North America is &0.55 per 1000 population.^3,4

	Cardiac Arrest and the Chain of Survival

 
Most victims of SCA demonstrate ventricular fibrillation (VF) at some point in their arrest.^3–5 Several phases of VF have been described,⁷ and resuscitation is most successful if defibrillation is performed in about the first 5 minutes after collapse. Because the interval between call to the emergency medical services (EMS) system and arrival of EMS personnel at the victim’s side is typically longer than 5 minutes,⁸ achieving high survival rates depends on . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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