New 2010 CPR guidelines from the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association has updated its CPR guidelines. Now, CPR is C-A-B instead of A-B-C. The focus is on circulation, followed by airway and breathing. This way, there is no reason to delay before you start giving chest compressions. Overall, the 2010 guidelines are simpler. The Adult BLS Algorithm is very simple compared to previous diagrams. The 2010 guidelines also "strongly recommend" that 911 dispatchers guide people through "compression-only" CPR. Speaking of chest compressions, the new guidelines continue to emphasize the need for high quality chest compressions and it changes the compression rate from "approximately" 100/min to "at least" 100/min. Let's hope this doesn't cause people to compress too quickly.

I haven't performed CPR in a very long time. In fact, I've only performed it in the hospital setting. It's good to see that the AHA is updating these guidelines and simplifying them.