American Heart Association issued American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care in October 2020. A sixth link, recovery, has been added to both the adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest chain and in-hospital cardiac arrest chain in this version of the guidelines to emphasize the importance of recovery and survivorship for resuscitation outcomes. Analogous chains of survival have also been developed for adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and in-hospital cardiac arrest. The major new and updated recommendations involve the early initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation by lay rescuers, early administration of epinephrine, real-time audiovisual feedback, physiologic monitoring of cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality, double sequential defibrillation not supported, intravenous access preferred over intraosseous, post-cardiac arrest care and neuroprognostication, care and support during recovery, debriefings for rescuers, and cardiac arrest in pregnancy. This present review aims to interpret these updates by reviewing the literature and comparing the recommendations in these guidelines with previous ones.
