Statement on compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation

The purpose of this statement is to clarify the SJA position on the statement issued by the American Heart Association (AHA) entitled 'Hands-only (compression-only) CPR'

The Resuscitation Council (UK) has carefully considered all the available evidence and concluded that there is no indication to change the existing guidelines for Basic Life Support (BLS) published in 2005 . Therefore all SJA training and the provision of BLS will be in accordance with the current First Aid Manual which reflects these guidelines.

The current guidelines state that 30 chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute followed by two rescue breaths should be provided with minimal interruption of chest compressions. For lay rescuers who have not been trained in BLS, or those who are not willing or are unable to give rescue breaths, an acceptable alternative is to give uninterrupted chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute.

There will be several circumstances, in which providing rescue breaths remain critical such as in unwitnessed cardiac arrest, cardiac arrest in children, most in-hospital cardiac arrests, cardiac arrest of non-cardiac origin such as drowning or airway obstruction, and during resuscitation attempts lasting more than approximately 4 minutes.

In collaboration with the AHA, the International Liaison Committee On Resuscitation (ILCOR) continues to co-ordinate evidence-based review of resuscitation science, which will culminate in a Consensus Conference in February 2010. The outcome of this will determine any revisions of the guidelines.