Highlights of 2010 American Heart Association guidelines changes for pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation

In Oct 2010,American Heart Association (AHA) released new guidelines for pediatric basic life support and pediatric advanced life support.The new AHA guidelines are based on an extensive review of thousands of resuscitation studies by experts who reached a consensus over a 3-year period.Compared with the 2005 AHA guidelines for pediatric basic and advanced life support,the new guidelines made major changes on some key issues,including the change of basic life sequence from A-B-C to C-A-B,high-quality chest compression,defibrillation and the use of automated external defibrillator in infants,medications during resuscitation,resuscitation of children with congenital heart disease,post-resuscitation management and evaluation of sudden cardiac death victims.This paper summarized the substantial changes and the reasons to change. Key words: Cardiopuimonary resuscitation;  Basic life support;  Advanced life support;  Children