Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: recent advances in resuscitation and effects on outcome

Successful treatment of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remains an unmet health need. Key elements of treatment comprise early recognition of cardiac arrest, prompt and effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), effective defibrillation strategies and organised post-resuscitation care. The initiation of bystander CPR followed by a prompt emergency response that delivers high quality CPR is critical to outcomes. The integration of additional tasks such as defibrillation, airway management, vascular access and drug administration should avoid interruptions in chest compressions. Evidence for the routine use of CPR prompt/feedback devices, mechanical chest compression devices and pharmacological therapy is limited. https://heart.bmj.com/content/heartjnl/98/7/529.full.pdf This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2011-30080