Optimal Use of the 2015 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC)

  International guidelines for CPR and ECC were issued by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2000. Subsequently, these guidelines were extended to Europe, Australia, and Asia, including Japan. The guidelines have been revised every 5 years, taking into account the characteristics of each region. In Japan, the Japan Resuscitation Council (JRC) Resuscitation Guidelines were prepared in 2010 on the basis of the Consensus on Science with Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR), consisting of scientific and therapeutic recommendations for CPR and ECC. The 2015 JRC Guidelines are scheduled to be released on October 15, 2015, concurrently with CoSTR 2015. The point that will receive the most attention is that the 2015 Guidelines were prepared with the use of the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. This system is a very transparent approach used to evaluate the quality of evidence supporting the systematic review (SR) and clinical practice guidelines (CPG) and to grade the strength of recommendations in the CPG. In addition to such evidence-based revisions of the recommendations, substantial evidence has been accumulated in Japan during the past 5 years, and CoSTR 2015 is expected to be released on the basis of such evidence. In this symposium, committee members who actually prepared the guidelines will be assigned to 6 working groups (BLS, ALS, PED, ACS, brain resuscitation, and EIT) intimately related to cardiology and will explain the revisions and recommend how such revisions can be optimally incorporated into clinical practice.