Part 7: Adult Basic Life Support: 2025 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care

Abstract

The American Heart Association’s 2025 Adult Basic Life Support Guidelines build upon prior versions with updated recommendations for assessment and management of persons with cardiac arrest, as well as respiratory arrest and foreign-body airway obstruction. The chapter addresses the important elements of adult basic life support including initial recognition of cardiac arrest, activation of emergency response, provision of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and use of an automated external defibrillator. In addition, there are updated recommendations on the treatment of foreign-body airway obstruction. The use of opioid antagonists (eg, naloxone) during respiratory or cardiac arrest is incorporated into the adult basic life support algorithms, with more detailed information provided in “Part 10: Adult and Pediatric Special Circumstances of Resuscitation.”