Resuscitation guidelines 2010: a scientific consensus

Sudden cardiac death is a major killer of adults, and coronary heart disease--which kills as many as 99,000 per annum in the UK--is the underlying cause in the majority of those over 40 years of age. Although in some countries, survival for patients who collapse in ventricular fibrillation (VF) is as high as 35%, in the UK this is not the case, and the culture of the medical community has sometimes suggested that little can or should be done for these patients. This culture is changing due to advances in techniques and better understanding of the physiological changes that occur during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but more can be done.