[Guidelines for basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation of adult patients. European Resuscitation Council].

In this article, 15 experts from six countries present an abridged version of the 1998 European Resuscitation Council guidelines for adult basic life support. Persons trained in advanced life support should use these guidelines together with the guidelines for advanced life support, also published in this journal. There are a few changes from the previous guidelines published in 1993. The ventilation tidal volume has been reduced to 400-600 ml, and the chest compression frequency has been increased to 100 min-1. In Norway, but not in the rest of Europe, the evaluation of the circulation by a pulse check has been eliminated in basic, but not in advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This is due to reports that pulse checks performed by lay rescuers require much time with poor specificity and sensitivity. Finally, in evaluating the patient's own ventilation the differentiation between agonal gasps and regular breaths is stressed.