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Basic life support (BLS) is a specific level of prehospital medical care provided by trained responders, including emergency medical technicians, in the absence of advanced medical care. EMTs loading an injured skier into an ambulance An emergency medical technician or EMT (American English) is an emergency responder trained to provide emergency medical services to the critically ill and injured. ...
Basic Life Support consists of a number of life-saving techniques which are focused on the "ABC"s of prehospital emergency care:
- Airway: the protection and maintenance of patient airway including the use of airway adjuncts such as an oral or nasal airway
- Breathing: the actual flow of air through respiration, natural or artificial respiration, often assisted by emergency oxygen
- Circulation: the movement of blood through the beating of the heart or the emergency measure of CPR
BLS may also include considerations of patient transport such as the protection of the cervical spine and avoiding additional injuries through splinting and immobilization. Artificial respiration is a technique for providing air for a person who is not breathing on their own but whose heart is still beating. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series Chalcogens Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ...
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is emergency first aid for an unconscious person on whom breathing and pulse cannot be detected. ...
BLS generally does not include the use of drugs or invasive skills, and can be contrasted with the provision of Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS). Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) is a detailed medical protocol for the provision of lifesaving cardiac care in settings ranging from the pre-hospital environment to the hospital setting. ...
CPR provided in the field buys time for higher medical responders to arrive and provide ACLS. For this reason it is essential that any person starting CPR also obtain ACLS support by calling for help via radio using agency policies and procedures and/or using an appropriate emergency telephone number. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Distress call. ...
Many countries public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or occasionally the emergency services number, that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. ...
An important advance in providing BLS is the availability of the automated external defibrillator or AED, which can be used to deliver defibrillation. This improves survival outcomes in cardiac arrest cases, sometimes dramatically. A semi-automatic external defibrillator An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that diagnoses and treats cardiac arrest by reestablishing an effective heart rhythm. ...
An automated external defibrillator (AED) detects and treats cardiac arrest due to the cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT). ...
Typical view of the defibrillator operator. ...
In other countries
The term BLS is also used in some non-English speaking countries (e.g. in Italy) for the education of first responders. First responder is a term used by national authorities for local law enforcement, local Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), local firemen and fire rescue. ...
In Belgium, the education is called Aide médicale urgente ("emergency medical assistance"), and in France CFAPSE (certificat de formation aux activités des premiers secours en équipe, "education certificate for the team first responder activity"). These educations do not include the use of drugs or of invasive techniques, but include the management of various traumas and the casualty lifting and movement. Casualty lifting is the first step of casualty movement, an early aspect of emergency medical care. ...
The casualty movement is the procedures used to move a casualty from the initial location (street, home, working place. ...
See also Advanced Life Support (ALS) is a treatment consensus for cardiopulmonary resuscitation in cardiac arrest and related medical problems, as agreed by the European Resuscitation Council, most recently in 2000. ...
EMTs loading an injured skier into an ambulance An emergency medical technician or EMT (American English) is an emergency responder trained to provide emergency medical services to the critically ill and injured. ...
Artificial respiration is a technique for providing air for a person who is not breathing on their own but whose heart is still beating. ...
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is emergency first aid for an unconscious person on whom breathing and pulse cannot be detected. ...
External links - Single-Rescuer Adult Basic Life Support — An Advisory Statement From the Basic Life Support Working Group of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, Circulation #95, pp 2174–2179, ed. American Heart Association, 1997
- Nozioni primo soccorso BLS (Italian), PDF document (12p, 912 Kb)
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