AHA Releases New CPR Guidelines

10/20/2015

The American Heart Association has issued new guidelines for administering CPR.

Bystanders should jump in quickly to give CPR, using breaths if they've been trained in CPR and using mobile technology to speed up the rescue of cardiac arrest victims, according to the American Heart Association's 2015 Guidelines Update for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care.

Over 326,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and 209,000 in-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually. Despite advances in resuscitation science, survival rates are only about 10 percent.

Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after cardiac arrest, can double or triple a victim's chance of survival.

Key points from the 2015 Guidelines Update:

Untrained bystanders should still call 911 and provide Hands-Only CPR, pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest to the rate of 100-120 compressions per minute.
Bystanders should use mobile phones to immediately call 911 and place the phones on speaker, so the dispatcher can help bystanders check for breathing, get the precise location and provide instructions for performing CPR.
Dispatchers should be specifically educated to help bystanders recognize that agonal gasps are a sign of cardiac arrest and that brief generalized seizures may be the first sign of cardiac arrest.
Mobile dispatch systems that notify potential rescuers of a nearby cardiac arrest can improve the rate of bystander CPR and shorten the time to first chest compressions. Communities may want to consider this service to improve the chain of survival.

For trained responders:

Add breaths in a 30:2 compressions-to-breaths ratio.
Upper limits of recommended heart rate and compression depth have been added: Rescuers should perform chest compressions at a rate of 100 to 120 per minute to a depth of at least 2 inches, avoiding depths greater than 2.4 inches.

For more information on the new guidelines click here: https://eccguidelines.heart.org/index.php/american-heart-association/

For the original journal articles in Circulation click here: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/132/18_suppl_2.toc

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- Family history of unexpected, unexplained sudden death under age 40.
- Fainting or seizure during exercise, excitement or startle.
- Consistent or unusual chest pain &/or shortness of breath during exercise.

AHA Releases New CPR Guidelines

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