New Veterinary CPR Guidelines Are Released

New Veterinary CPR Guidelines Are Released
The recommendations seek to make CPR outcomes similar in pets and people.
Veterinary emergency and critical care specialists have released updated CPR guidelines that aim to standardize cardiopulmonary resuscitation practices and make the outcomes more comparable to human cases.

“The publication of these new guidelines represents a pivotal event in veterinary resuscitation science,” said Dr. Manuel Boller, who co-chaired the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) Initiative. “These updates incorporate new scientific evidence, feedback from the veterinary community and the latest advancements, directly enhancing how we perform lifesaving CPR on pets.”

The key updates include:

• Chest compression techniques: How to perform them on small dogs and cats, including positioning, compression points and the compression rate to optimize an animal’s survival during cardiac arrest.
• Chest depths and techniques: Improve CPR’s effectiveness by adjusting for animal size and chest shape.
• Breathing support: Revised for non-intubated patients and with a focus on rescuer safety.
• Medication dosages and procedures: Help veterinarians provide more precise and effective CPR treatment.

Specialists worldwide and from multiple disciplines collaborated to develop the new recommendations.

“Thanks to a rigorous review of over 1,370 studies by 102 volunteer evidence evaluators, these updates embody our commitment to the highest standards of evidence-based veterinary practice,” said another RECOVER Initiative co-chair, Dr. Jamie Burkitt.