Guidelines for revised cardiopulmonary resuscitation - Basic life support

Abstract

Basic life support (BLS) does not require any special instruments or drugs, and its skills can be understood and performed easily by the lay person. The main goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for the victims of cardiac pulmonary arrest (CPA) is not only restoration of cardiopulmonary function but also return to their previous life. An early bystander CPR plays a pivotal role to achieve this target. When encountering an unconscious person, emergency medical systems (EMS) such as calling 119 must be activated immediately. As the next step, cardiopulmonary condition status has to be determined after assurance of airway patency. When there are no signs of breathing or pulse, BLS consisting of artificial respiration and/or chest compression must be started immediately and continued until EMS staffs arrive. In this article, the details of the revised guidelines for BLS by the American Heart Association are described. Current CPR education for pre- or early post-graduate medical students in our institution is reported.