New guidelines for resuscitation published

As reported by the Swiss Resuscitation Council (SRC), the new guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation were published simultaneously by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) on October 15, 2015. After five years, they replace the 2010 version.

Both guideline variants are based on the broadly supported scientific consensus (CoSTR) of ILCOR (International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation), a worldwide association of national and international resuscitation organizations. This standardizes the current state of science and translates it into practical knowledge.

The differences between AHA and ERC guidelines mainly concern implementation details, or course delivery. The SRC has therefore approved AHA and ERC courses for professional rescuers in Switzerland since 2010. For professionals (physicians, certified paramedics and certified nurses) this is not problematic, as the differences between the course systems can be argued and the risk of confusion can be neglected.

The principle of the Unité de doctrine is thus placed by the SRC on the level of the ILCOR-CoSTR. The SRC therefore supports and recommends for Switzerland the course systems of the AHA and the ERC, or any other formats that are ILCOR-compliant, as a standard in the professional area.
In the past, however, uncertainty has arisen in the first-aid sector due to the sometimes divergent doctrinal statements - even if they were factually minor. In the SRC's view, clear and uniform guidelines must apply nationwide here that do not give rise to any interpretations or ambiguities. For this reason, the SRC, through its BLS Faculty, is issuing uniform, binding teaching statements and course guidelines throughout Switzerland, including a uniform BLS AED algorithm.

Further information and the new guidelines for download can be found at the website of the SRC.