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(Circulation. 2005;112:IV-19 – IV-34.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

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

Part 4: Adult Basic Life Support

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Basic life support (BLS) includes recognition of signs of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), heart attack, stroke, and foreign-body airway obstruction (FBAO); cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); and defibrillation with an automated external defibrillator (AED). This section summarizes BLS guidelines for lay rescuers and healthcare providers.

	Introduction

 
As noted in Part 3: "Overview of CPR," SCA is a leading cause of death in the United States and Canada.^1–3 At the first analysis of heart rhythm, about 40% of victims of out-of-hospital SCA demonstrate ventricular fibrillation (VF).^3–5 VF is characterized by chaotic rapid depolarizations and repolarizations that cause the heart to quiver so that it is unable to pump blood effectively.⁶ It is likely that an even larger number of SCA victims have VF or rapid ventricular tachycardia (VT) at the time of collapse, but by the time of first rhythm analysis the rhythm has deteriorated to asystole.⁷

Many SCA victims can survive if bystanders act immediately while VF is still present, but successful resuscitation is unlikely once the rhythm deteriorates to asystole.⁸ Treatment for VF SCA is immediate bystander CPR plus delivery of a shock with a defibrillator. The mechanism of cardiac arrest in victims of trauma, drug overdose, drowning, and in many children is asphyxia. CPR with both compressions and rescue breaths is critical for resuscitation of these victims.

The American Heart Association uses 4 links in a chain (the "Chain of Survival") to illustrate the important time-sensitive actions for victims of VF SCA (Figure 1). Three and possibly all 4 . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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