Basic Life Support
Introduction
Basic life support (BLS) consists of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and when available, defibrillation using automated external defibrillators (AED).
- Closed chest defibrillation of the heart, 1957
- A comparison of the mouth-to-mouth and mouth-to-airway methods of artificial respiration with the chest-pressure arm-lift methods, 1958
- Closed-chest cardiac massage, 1960
It aims to maintain an open airway and breathing in order to maximize the chance of survival.
Initial Assessment (DRS)
Danger - Make sure it is safe to help
- Wear PPE (gloves, apron, mask) if available.
- Look out for blood spills, sharps, electric wires, etc.
- Tap shoulders. Say "Hello, hello are you okay?"
- Emergency! Emergency! Bring the resus trolley and defibrilator!
Initial Treatment of the Unresponsive Victim (ABCD)
Airway - Open the airway
- Perform head tilt-chin lift
Breathing - Assess for normal breathing
- Look for normal breathing in more than 10 seconds.
- Start chest compressions if not breathing or abnormal breathing (gasp) is seen.
Circulation - Start chest compression
- High quality chest compression:
- Middle of chest, lower half of sternum
- Depth: 5 to 6 cm
- Rate: 100 to 120/min
- Full recoil after each compression
- Minimize interruption
- 30 compressions: 2 ventilations
- Each ventilation in 1 second
Defibrillation - Assess for need to shock
- Attach AED/Manual defibrillator
- Do not interrupt chest compression
- Follow AED voice prompt
- For manual defibrillator, shock if VF or pulseless VT recognised
- Immediately continue CPR
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