Treating patients with cardiac arrest requires specialized knowledge and skills. These include:

• Basic Life Support (BLS)
• Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
• Post-cardiac arrest care

These three stages of care may overlap with each other, and the team performs ACLS between BLS and post-cardiac arrest care. This section defines the adjuncts used during advanced cardiovascular life support. 

Trained healthcare personnel in the prehospital and in-hospital settings perform ACLS. AHA categorizes cardiac arrest according to the situation in which it occurs. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) pertains to the prehospital setting, while in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) pertains to arrests that occur in the in-hospital setting. The theories of care in each of the two settings have many similarities, but some treatments are only possible in the hospital where an abundance of resources is available.