Advanced cardiac life support | |
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![]() Cardiopulmonary resuscitation of an avalanche victim who was medically evacuated to Craig Joint Theater Hospital in February 2010 | |
Other names | Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support, ACLS |
Specialty | Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, Critical Care, Anesthesia |
Uses | Cardiac arrest treatment, Cardiovascular emergency treatment |
Frequency | Common |
Advanced cardiac life support, advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) refers to a set of clinical guidelines established by the American Heart Association (AHA) for the urgent and emergent treatment of life-threatening cardiovascular conditions that will cause or have caused cardiac arrest, using advanced medical procedures, medications, and techniques. ACLS expands on Basic Life Support (BLS) by adding recommendations on additional medication and advanced procedure use to the CPR guidelines that are fundamental and efficacious in BLS. ACLS is practiced by advanced medical providers including physicians, some nurses and paramedics;[1] these providers are usually required to hold certifications in ACLS care.
While "ACLS" is almost always semantically interchangeable with the term "Advanced Life Support" (ALS), when used distinctly, ACLS tends to refer to the immediate cardiac care, while ALS tends to refer to more specialized resuscitation care such as ECMO and PCI. In the EMS community, "ALS" may refer to the advanced care provided by paramedics while "BLS" may refer to the fundamental care provided by EMTs and EMRs; without these terms referring to cardiovascular-specific care.
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