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American Heart Association Moves to Annual Guidelines Update, a First for the Organization<\/h2>\nAmerican Heart Association Moves to Annual Guidelines Update, a First for the Organization<\/h2>\nMore people will survive cardiac arrest if emergency medical dispatchers give\u00a0chest compression-only CPR instructions over the phone<\/a>\u00a0and if infants and children receive chest compressions with rescue breaths, according to updated\u00a0CPR guidelines published today<\/a>\u00a0by the\u00a0American Heart Association<\/a>\u00a0(Association), the world\u2019s leading voluntary health organization devoted to fighting cardiovascular disease.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The changes in the\u00a02017 American Heart Association Focused Updates on Adult and Pediatric Basic Life Support and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Quality<\/em>\u00a0also re-emphasize the importance of bystanders starting immediate chest compressions if they see an adult collapse in a suspected cardiac arrest. Immediate bystander help has been shown to double or triple survival chances among the more than 350,000 Americans who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Highlighting the need for rapid response, the\u00a02017 Focused Updates<\/em>\u00a0stress the importance of providing dispatch-assisted compression-only CPR instructions when cardiac arrest is suspected. Telephone CPR not only assists the untrained caller, but it reminds the CPR-trained caller how to provide high-quality CPR in a stressful situation.\u00a0 Currently, only half of the nation\u2019s dispatchers provide telephone CPR, which has been identified as a critical intervention in the chain of survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The\u00a02017 Focused Updates<\/em>\u00a0were informed by research published since the\u00a02015 Guidelines Update<\/em>, and authors found even more evidence supporting the need for compressions and rescue breaths during CPR for children who have not yet reached puberty. More than 7,000 children die from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest annually. In most cases, it is the result of a lack of oxygen, and rescue breaths can keep oxygenated blood flowing through the system.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a02017 Focused Updates<\/em>\u00a0validate what we already know about performing CPR and offer a scientific basis for optimizing CPR quality to save more lives,\u201d said Karl Kern, M.D., chair of the Association\u2019s Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and professor of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine \u2013\u00a0Tucson\u2019s Sarver Heart Center<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s critically important to translate new science to bedside care as quickly as possible, especially as the amount of scientific research available is growing rapidly.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The\u00a0Guidelines\u00a0<\/em>had previously been updated every five years, and this marks the first year that the\u00a0International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation<\/a>(ILCOR), an organization of global resuscitation experts, is switching to an annual format. The Association represents the United States on the committee.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The ILCOR evaluation process involves hundreds of resuscitation scientists and experts worldwide, who evaluate thousands of peer-reviewed publications for high-priority resuscitation topics requiring a systematic review. The annual focused update allows the rigor of a comprehensive review and expert consensus in as close to real time as possible.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n