New international consensus on cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Guidelines recommend CPR with a compression to ventilation ratio of 30:2

This week authoritative new international guidelines for managing cardiopulmonary arrest have been published. They arise from global cooperation coordinated by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.1 The committee was established in 1992, and in 2000 produced the first guidelines intended for global use.2 The new recommendations for 2005 are described as a “consensus on science,” and they reflect the growing recognition that different countries and regions have varied resources and needs.

The consensus statement provides both content and a framework that the main international councils can use and adapt to produce their own broadly similar guidelines with a common core of key recommendations for resuscitation from cardiopulmonary arrest. Both the consensus statement and the European Resuscitation Council guidelines drawn from it can be downloaded from www.erc.edu.3 4 The American Heart Association published the consensus statement and their own guidelines simultaneously.5 6

The European guidelines have been adopted by the Resuscitation Council (UK) without modification (www.resus.org.uk).7 The principal changes in the European guidelines since 2000 are both welcome and, on the basis of the available science, broadly as expected. The principal new thrust, supported by much new evidence, is a greater emphasis on the optimal performance of chest compressions. Many believe that the failure to show any appreciable increase in survival rates over recent decades …