Cardiopulmonary resuscitation of pregnant patients in the rescue service: Standardized approach for emergency medical management

Abstract

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation of a pregnant patient is a rarity in prehospital emergency medicine and an extraordinary challenge for the emergency team. Besides modifications to emergency medical procedures due to physiological changes during pregnancy, specific reversible causes must be considered and psychosocial difficulties must be managed. This article aims to present a standard operating procedure for this special situation. In these circumstances the basics of crew resource management (CRM) are of special interest for the emergency team and are therefore mentioned in this article.