Ep 215 Cardiac Arrest Update: Beyond the 2025 Guidelines Part 1: CPR, Defibrillation and Ventilation

Emergency Medicine Cases

Dr. Anton Helman

Education, Health & Fitness, Courses, Medicine, Science

4.7 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 113 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this EM Cases update on cardiac arrest management, Dr. Sheldon Cheskes and Dr. Rob Simard join Anton to walk us through the evolving science and bedside practicalities of cardiac arrest management in the wake of the 2025 ACLS Guidelines. They answer questions such as: What are the most common failures in CPR quality, and how can we recognize and correct them in real time? Should we employ head up CPR, and if so how? How should we interpret ETCO₂ during cardiac arrest, and why shouldn’t we chase a single number? How can we minimize peri-shock pauses and optimize defibrillation success at the bedside? Is the traditional two-minute CPR cycle too rigid, and should we be shocking earlier in cases of refibrillation? What is the evidence behind dual sequential external defibrillation (DSED), and when should we use it? After 3 shocks or earlier? How does hyperventilation during cardiac arrest harm patients, and what strategies can reliably prevent it? What is compression-adjusted ventilation (CAV), and how can it improve ventilation consistency during resuscitation? What is the optimal dose of epinephrine in patient with Ventricular Fibrillation? and many more... Please donate to EM Cases to ensure ongoing Free Open Access Medical Education here: https://emergencymedicinecases.com/donation/ This is a deep dive into the critical inflection points in resuscitation where small changes in technique and decision-making may have the greatest impact on outcomes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Emergency medicine is more than just ordered chaos.
0:04.5	From the recess room to the bedside, we are witness to it all.
0:07.9	And we're here to help you prepare for it.
0:10.3	Bringing you the brightest minds in emergency medicine from around the world for trusted,
0:14.8	tried, and true free open access medical education.
0:18.0	I'm Dr. Anton Hellman.
0:19.6	And I'm Dr. Katie Lynn. Katie, let's welcome the listeners
0:22.7	from our amazing EM community to the Emergency Medicine Cases podcast, shall we? Yeah. Or let's simply call it
0:28.7	EM cases. Okay, EM Cases. EM cases is brought to you by Shremi, the Schwartz-Rizman Emergency Medicine
0:35.6	Institute. That's a non-profit organization dedicated to improving EM care through high-quality research and education. The opinions expressed on this podcast are intended for information and education purposes only and should not be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical condition, nor should they be used as a substitute for medical advice from qualified practicing physicians. First, just a quick word from our sponsor, Metricade, the experts in complex physician scheduling since 2012. I've been using
0:55.8	Metricade's incredible scheduling system for more than a decade, and it's been a game changer
0:59.9	for me and my colleagues. Shift work comes with its challenges, but Metricade helps minimize
1:05.0	the drawbacks by ensuring fair distribution of shifts while integrating circadian rhythm-friendly recovery time into its methodology,
1:13.1	preserving your precious sleep so that you can perform at your best. Go to metricade.com slash
1:18.8	EM cases to see how Metricade can make your scheduling fair, improve your sleep and your performance.
1:25.5	That's metricade.com slash emcases.
1:29.7	The 2025 AHA ACLS guidelines informed by the International Lazon Committee on Resuscitation
1:38.3	Illcore reinforce many things we already know, which we covered in episodes 169 and 170 in 2022.
1:46.9	But they also expose where the evidence is weak, where practice has drifted, and where nuance
1:53.9	matters most for emergency physicians running real resuscitations.
1:58.7	I just have to say off the top that while we should know what's in the
2:02.5	guidelines, and they're generally pretty good, they're designed for office-based physicians
	...

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