Cardiovascular Atlas
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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)

CPR is the emergency measure used while a person's heart is not pumping. MedlinePlus says it keeps blood moving to the brain and other organs until the heart's rhythm can be restored, and that it should start at once and carry on until a defibrillator is ready. NHLBI says a bystander can improve a person's chance by calling 9-1-1, giving CPR and using an AED, and that few people who have an arrest are treated fast enough to survive.

Also called CPR

  • Intervention
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

NHLBI and MedlinePlus are general patient pages and give no compression rate or depth. No compression rate, depth or class of recommendation is recorded here. MeSH D016887 (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation).

About this intervention

Type
Procedure
Mechanism
Keeps blood moving to the brain and other organs until the heart's rhythm can be restored (MedlinePlus).

Claims and evidence

Context People in cardiac arrest outside hospital, as described in NHLBI and MedlinePlus patient pages

Recipient
Recipient not specified
Population
People who collapse and may be in cardiac arrest, and the bystanders around them. The pages are general patient information and do not give separate advice by age.
Care setting
Community and public places, then emergency services (the pages are written for bystanders).
Geography
United States (the NHLBI page cites US death figures and the 9-1-1 number).
Life stage
The pages do not state an age group.
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Not applicable (patient information pages).
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; exclusion criteria not stated
Included
  • A person who collapses, stops responding and is not breathing normally
Excluded
None stated

  • Description Evidence stage unknown Certainty not assessed

    NHLBI says bystanders to a cardiac arrest can phone 9-1-1, give CPR and use an AED, and that immediate CPR and defibrillation after a 9-1-1 call can save a life. It adds that few people who have an arrest get treated fast enough to survive. MedlinePlus says CPR should begin right away and carry on until a defibrillator is ready, since CPR keeps blood moving to the brain and other organs until the heart's rhythm is restored, and that the defibrillator shock must come within minutes of the arrest to work well.

    Applies to Recipient not specified
    • People who collapse and may be in cardiac arrest, and the bystanders around them. The pages are general patient information and do not give separate advice by age.
    • Community and public places, then emergency services (the pages are written for bystanders).
    • United States (the NHLBI page cites US death figures and the 9-1-1 number).
    • The pages do not state an age group.
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable (patient information pages).
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    General patient information from two government pages. NHLBI is a cite-only source, so its wording is restated and not quoted. The pages are not a guideline: they give no compression rate or depth and no class of recommendation. The 2025 AHA guideline abstracts were read, but their recommendations were not.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (7)

    1. Supports Cardiac Arrest: What Is Cardiac Arrest? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page says it was last updated on May 19, 2022.

      Locator
      Page body, paragraph 6
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      983ed7b98dc8e782bb47746bd9a1e78f09f7a6d5be1f583b636d40b93e91748a
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The pages carry third-party material, such as glossary entries and animations, that this atlas does not use. NIH's own web policy page returned HTTP 403 to a script on 2026-10-14 in an earlier cluster (cj-nih-web-policies.html) and was not tried again here, so NHLBI's reuse terms have not been read. Public text is cite_only until they are read; the integration owner can change it to quote. Hash only; the page is not committed (fetched as ck-nhlbi-cardiac-arrest.html).

    2. Supports Cardiac Arrest: What Is Cardiac Arrest? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page says it was last updated on May 19, 2022.

      Locator
      Page body, paragraph 6 (quote 2)
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      983ed7b98dc8e782bb47746bd9a1e78f09f7a6d5be1f583b636d40b93e91748a
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The pages carry third-party material, such as glossary entries and animations, that this atlas does not use. NIH's own web policy page returned HTTP 403 to a script on 2026-10-14 in an earlier cluster (cj-nih-web-policies.html) and was not tried again here, so NHLBI's reuse terms have not been read. Public text is cite_only until they are read; the integration owner can change it to quote. Hash only; the page is not committed (fetched as ck-nhlbi-cardiac-arrest.html).

    3. Supports Cardiac Arrest: What Is Cardiac Arrest? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page says it was last updated on May 19, 2022.

      Locator
      Page body, paragraph 6 (quote 3)
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      983ed7b98dc8e782bb47746bd9a1e78f09f7a6d5be1f583b636d40b93e91748a
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The pages carry third-party material, such as glossary entries and animations, that this atlas does not use. NIH's own web policy page returned HTTP 403 to a script on 2026-10-14 in an earlier cluster (cj-nih-web-policies.html) and was not tried again here, so NHLBI's reuse terms have not been read. Public text is cite_only until they are read; the integration owner can change it to quote. Hash only; the page is not committed (fetched as ck-nhlbi-cardiac-arrest.html).

    4. Supports Cardiac Arrest: What Is Cardiac Arrest? (NHLBI)

      Webpage · National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15. The page says it was last updated on May 19, 2022.

      Locator
      Page body, AED section (quote 2)
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      983ed7b98dc8e782bb47746bd9a1e78f09f7a6d5be1f583b636d40b93e91748a
      Reuse basis
      NHLBI is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The pages carry third-party material, such as glossary entries and animations, that this atlas does not use. NIH's own web policy page returned HTTP 403 to a script on 2026-10-14 in an earlier cluster (cj-nih-web-policies.html) and was not tried again here, so NHLBI's reuse terms have not been read. Public text is cite_only until they are read; the integration owner can change it to quote. Hash only; the page is not committed (fetched as ck-nhlbi-cardiac-arrest.html).

    5. Supports Sudden Cardiac Arrest (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · U.S. National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15.

      Locator
      Summary, treatments
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      713e38eb67d03168df1bcf93f80abed751759ee7e044ac8697444ff28033a8d5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus states that works produced by the federal government are not copyrighted, and lists the summaries on health topic pages and medical test information as public domain (the page titled Linking to and Using Content from MedlinePlus, fetched as ck-medlineplus-usingcontent.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34). It names the A.D.A.M. encyclopedia, drug monographs and many images as copyrighted; this atlas uses only the page summary text. Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. The raw page is committed at research/snapshots/ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html (fetched as ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html).

    6. Supports Sudden Cardiac Arrest (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · U.S. National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15.

      Locator
      Summary, treatments (quote 2)
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      713e38eb67d03168df1bcf93f80abed751759ee7e044ac8697444ff28033a8d5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus states that works produced by the federal government are not copyrighted, and lists the summaries on health topic pages and medical test information as public domain (the page titled Linking to and Using Content from MedlinePlus, fetched as ck-medlineplus-usingcontent.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34). It names the A.D.A.M. encyclopedia, drug monographs and many images as copyrighted; this atlas uses only the page summary text. Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. The raw page is committed at research/snapshots/ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html (fetched as ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html).

    7. Supports Sudden Cardiac Arrest (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · U.S. National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus) · Edition Page fetched 2026-10-15.

      Locator
      Summary, treatments (quote 3)
      How it applies
      Patient information page, restated in the claim.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      713e38eb67d03168df1bcf93f80abed751759ee7e044ac8697444ff28033a8d5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus states that works produced by the federal government are not copyrighted, and lists the summaries on health topic pages and medical test information as public domain (the page titled Linking to and Using Content from MedlinePlus, fetched as ck-medlineplus-usingcontent.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34). It names the A.D.A.M. encyclopedia, drug monographs and many images as copyrighted; this atlas uses only the page summary text. Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. The raw page is committed at research/snapshots/ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html (fetched as ck-medlineplus-suddencardiacarrest.html).

Record details

Record id
cardio:cpr
Content hash
ac44a46caa42472b04c0c17c717ff3f7c67ca7e2b90a937a7b606bd69f8e80c1