On October 20, 2020, the American Heart Association (AHA) released online its latest update of the Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care. The update included no major or groundbreaking changes from the 2015 guidelines, and it did not address the COVID-19 pandemic, which has turned many traditional concepts of resuscitation upside down.
Fortunately, in April 2020, the AHA issued Interim Guidance for Basic and Advanced Life Support, which addresses many modifications of the guidelines in patients with known or suspected COVID-19. Now that we are in the throes of a third wave of the pandemic, it is a good time to review those recommendations, with an emphasis on the modifications, in caring for patients with cardiac arrest and known or suspected COVID-19.
At the time of this writing, more than 24 million Americans have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and over 400,000 have died. It is estimated that 5% of infected patients become critically ill, and up to 40% of these will die.The actual overall mortality of those who are infected is uncertain but varies by age and overall is probably less than 2%This is a relatively low mortality rate, but because of the tremendous number of infected individuals, a large absolute number of patients die. Not surprisingly,
