Through the American Heart Association’s (AHA) guidance, ACLS courses help communities save
cardiac arrest patients’ lives. The World Health Organization identified ischemic heart disease as the world’s number one cause of death in 2019. The number of deaths from ischemic heart disease increased more over the past 20 years than the number of deaths from any other cause.1 Studies have shown that a majority of cardiac arrest patients do not receive high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Consequently, according to AHA statistics for 2020, the survival rate for patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was only 10.4%. In comparison, the patient survival rate after in-hospital cardiac arrest was 25.8%.2
1 The top 10 causes of death. World Health Organization website. Accessed April 9, 2021.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death
2 Virani SS, Alonso A, Benjamin EJ, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2020 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2020:141(9):e139–e596.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000757