Cardiopulmonary resuscitation in patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. A consensus of the working group of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation of the hellenic society of cardiology

Abstract

he unprecedented for modern medicine pandemic caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus ("coronavirus", Covid-19) creates in turn new data on the survival of cardiac arrest victims, but mainly on the safety of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) providers. The covid19 pandemic resulted in losses in thousands of lives, and many more people were hospitalized in simple beds or in intensive care units both globally and in Greece. More specifically, in victims of cardiac arrest, both in and out of hospital, the increased mortality and high contagiousness of the SARS-CoV-2 virus put the CPR rescuers in front of new questions of both medical and moral nature. What we all know in Resuscitation, is that we cannot harm the victim and therefore do the most/best we can, it is no longer the full reality. What we need to know and incorporate into decision-making in the resuscitation process is the distribution of limited human and material resources, the potentially very poor outcome of patients with covid-19 and cardiac arrest, and especially that a potential infection of health professionals can lead in the absence of health professionals in the near future. This review tries to incorporate the added skills and precautions for CPR providers in terms of both in hospital and out hospital CPR.