title: Basic life support.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation increases the chances of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Existing bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates are poor. There are several strategies for increasing the frequency and effectiveness of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These include simplifying the technique for basic life support, emphasizing the importance of compressions over ventilation, reducing the length of training by using video-based self-instruction and widening the range of those trained to include school children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A change in compression-ventilation ratio from 15: 2 to 30: 2 increases the number of compressions delivered. There is some evidence that compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation may increase survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Video-based self-instruction enables laypeople to be trained in basic life support in a fraction of the time of traditional courses. School children can be taught basic life support and can be used to help disseminate the skill.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The optimal basic life support technique that will generate the highest survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has not been determined, but there is increasing evidence that the existing technique needs to be simplified. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation increases survival but it needs to be undertaken more frequently if overall survival rates are to be improved significantly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal United Hospital, Bath, UK. jerry.nolan@nhs.net
authors.forename: Jerry P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Nolan
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012121:Respiration, Artificial