In the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2021, the results of six clinical trials related to cardiovascular surgery were revealed. The PALACS trial demonstrated that posterior left pericardiotomy during open heart surgery was associated with a significant reduction in postoperative atrial fibrillation; the EPICCURE study found that injection of mRNA encoding vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A mRNA) directly into the myocardium of patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) improved patients’ heart function; the VEST trial once again proved the safety and potential value of external stent for vein graft. This article will interpret the above-mentioned three studies.
In November 2017, the American Heart Association updated the pediatric basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality. The new guidelines focused on the clinical value of chest compression-only CPR versus CPR using chest compressions with rescue breaths in children, rather than a comprehensive revision of the 2015 edition guidelines. The Pediatric Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation updated part content of the guidelines according to the continuous evidence review process. Guidelines recommend CPR using chest compressions with rescue breaths should be provided for infants and children with cardiac arrest. Bystanders provide chest compressions if they are unwilling or unable to deliver rescue breaths. This article mainly interprets the updated content.
The American Heart Association (AHA) released the 2017 American Heart Association Focused Update on Adult Basic Life Support and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Quality (2017 AHA guidelines update) in November 2017. The 2017 AHA guidelines update was updated according to the rules named " the update of the guideline is no longer released every five years, but whenever new evidence is available” in the 2015 American Heart Association Guidelines Update for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care. The updated content in this guideline included five parts: dispatch-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), bystander CPR, emergency medical services - delivered CRP, CRP for cardiac arrest, and chest compression - to - ventilation ratio. This review will interpret the 2017 AHA guidelines update in detail.
American Heart Association (AHA) updated the advanced cardiovascular life support use of antiarrhythmic drugs during and immediately after cardiac arrest in the AHA guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care in November 2018. Based on the latest progress of relative evidence-based clinical evidence and 2015 AHA guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular emergency cardiovascular care. This update gave recommends on the use of antiarrhythmic drugs during resuscitation from adult shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF) and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (pVT) cardiac arrest and immediately after restoration of spontaneous circulation following shock-refractory VF/pVT cardiac arrest, respectively. This review aims to interpret this update by reviewing the literature and comparing the recommends in this update with other guidelines.
In October 2020, the American Heart Association issued the 2020 edition of guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular first aid, which comprehensively revised cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care guidelines related to adults, children, newborns, resuscitation education science and treatment system. According to the latest edition of International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation’s classes of recommendation and levels of evidence, relevant suggestions are put forward. This article interprets the main updated and revised content, including children’s basic and advanced life support and neonatal resuscitation, in order to better guide emergency personnel and improve the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular first aid.
In November 2019, the American Heart Association updated guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiovascular care. This update is not a comprehensive revision of the 2015 version. The updates for children and newborns mainly include three aspects: ① Pediatric basic life support: A. It is recommended that emergency medical dispatch centers offer dispatcher-assisted CPR instructions for presumed pediatric cardiac arrest. B. It is recommended that emergency dispatchers provide CPR instructions for pediatric cardiac arrest when no bystander CPR is in progress. ② Pediatric advanced life support: A. The bag-mask ventilation is reasonable compared with advanced airway interventions (endotracheal intubation or supraglottic airway) in the management of children during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). B. The extracorporeal CPR may be considered for pediatric patients with cardiac diagnoses who have in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) in settings with existing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation protocols, expertise, and equipment. C. Continuous measurement of core temperature during targeted temperature management is recommended; for infants or children between 24 hours and 18 years of age who remain comatose after OHCA or IHCA, targeted temperature management is recommened. ③ Neonatal resuscitation: A. In term and late-preterm newborns (≥35 weeks of gestation) receiving respiratory support at birth, the initial use of 21% oxygen is reasonable. B. One hundred percent oxygen should not be used to initiate resuscitation because it is associated with excess mortality. C. In preterm newborns (<35 weeks of gestation) receiving respiratory support at birth, it may be reasonable to begin with 21% to 30% oxygen.
In the late-breaking trials session of the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2021, which took place in November 2021, six clinical trials in cardiac surgery published their primary results. This review will look into three of them including the management of patients with moderate or less-than-moderate tricuspid regurgitation at the time of surgery for degenerative mitral regurgitation, timing of ticagrelor cessation before coronary artery bypass grafting, and long-term outcomes of ticagrelor-based antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention of coronary artery bypass grafting.
In November 2018, the American Heart Association (AHA) updated Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care. Rather than a comprehensive revision of the 2015 edition guidelines, the 2018 AHA guidelines update was updated again according to the rule " the update of the guideline is whenever new evidence is available”, providing the evidence review and treatment recommendation for antiarrhythmic drug therapy in pediatric shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest. The Pediatric Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation updated the guideline, reaffirming the 2015 pediatric advanced life support guideline recommendation that either lidocaine or amiodarone may be used to treat pediatric patients with shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia.
The American Heart Association published the “2025 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care” in the journal Circulation in October 2025. The new guideline integrates the previously separate adult survival chains for different scenarios and populations into a unified “six-link survival chain” and provides updates and recommendations for multiple key components. Key updates emphasize the following contents: in basic life support, optimization of rescuers’ and patients’ positions, compression strategies for obese or prone patients, systematic management procedures for foreign-body airway obstruction, and details of automated external defibrillator application; in advanced life support, strengthening the core role of epinephrine and standardizing the use of vasoactive agents; updated resuscitation strategies for special situations (such as exposure to highly pathogenic respiratory pathogens and volatile hydrocarbon poisoning); in post-cardiac arrest care, further updates to respiratory and circulatory support, targeted temperature management, and neurological prognosis assessment; and recommendations at the system of care level, including public access to naloxone, video-based dispatch response, and the establishment of resuscitation centers. This article interprets the core recommendations of the guideline to offer references for clinical practice and education.
In October 2025, the American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics released the “2025 American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care”, which systematically revised the 2025 version guideline based on evidence-based medicine, comprehensively updated the recommended content, class (strength) of recommendation, and level (quality) of evidence, and provided the latest recommendations aimed at improving survival rates and neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest. Since 2020, the Cardiology Committee of American Heart Association has strengthened its collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics to jointly publish and cochair the writing groups for neonatal resuscitation, pediatric basic life support, and pediatric advanced life support. This article mainly interprets the recommended content for updating neonatal resuscitation, pediatric basic life support, and pediatric advanced life support, in order to better guide emergency personnel and improve the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiovascular emergency care.