European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2010 Section 2. Adult basic life support and use of automated external defibrillators.

Basic life support (BLS) refers to maintaining airway patency and supporting breathing and the circulation, without the use of equipment other than a protective device. This section contains the guidelines for adult BLS and for the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED). It also includes recognition of sudden cardiac arrest, the recovery position and management of choking (foreign-body airway obstruction). Many of the recommendations made in the ERC Guidelines 2005 remain unchanged, either because no new studies have been published or because new evidence since 2005 has merely strengthened the evidence that was already available. Examples of this are the general design of the BLS and AED algorithms, the way the need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is recognised, the use of AEDs (including the shock protocols), the 30:2 ratio of compressions and ventilations, and the recognition and management of a choking victim. In contrast, new evidence has been published since 2005 that necessitates changes to some components of the 2010 Guidelines.