Revised guidelines are more evidence based

The United Kingdom's guidelines on advanced life support for adults were updated in 1997 and endorsed by the European Resuscitation Council in 1998.1 During 1999 and 2000 the American Heart Association hosted three meetings of international organisations in Dallas to evaluate the evidence on resuscitation. The sets of guidelines that resulted from the international consensus document have a stronger evidence base than their predecessors but have retained their simplicity. 2 3

Experts at the Dallas meetings included representatives from the American Heart Association, the European Resuscitation Council, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Australian Resuscitation Council, the New Zealand Resuscitation Council, the Resuscitation Council of Southern Africa, the Latin American Resuscitation Council, and Japan. All aspects of resuscitation were reviewed, and the quality of the evidence supporting each resuscitation intervention was appraised. 2 3 The European Resuscitation Council has accepted most of the recommendations from the international consensus document, and its revised guidelines for adults have been summarised in three papers.4^–6 The Resuscitation Council (UK) has adopted …