Immediate post-cardiac arrest care algorithm

Last updated: September 3, 2024

Version control: Our ACLS, PALS & BLS courses follow 2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR and ECC. American Heart Association guidelines are updated every five years. If you are reading this page after December 2025, please contact support@ACLS.net for an update. Version 2021.01.c

This case presents how to respond to someone who collapses outside of the hospital setting from either ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT). You are alone and must manage the patient by yourself. You do not have the option of ACLS interventions which you learned from ACLS online certification, including advanced airway control and IV medications. You have an automated external defibrillator (AED) with a pocket face mask. The second AED case focuses on the assessment and management of a patient in a witnessed cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation (VF) or pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VT). The patient did not respond to the first shock. A manual defibrillator is used in this case, and you work with a care team.

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Written by , providing nurse training at Yale New Haven Health-Bridgeport Hospital since 2022. Previously in healthcare and education at Griffin Hospital, St. Vincent's College of Nursing and Sacred Heart University Medical Center.

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