The 2025 updated European Resuscitation Council guidelines: overview of the most important changes.

Abstract

The new resuscitation guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council were published in October 2025. The aim of the guidelines is to sustainably improve the survival rate after cardiac arrest through structured and evidence‑based care systems. The latest update brings about some important changes and innovations. In this review, we highlighted the new recommendations, especially in the chapters on adult advanced life support, post‑resuscitation care, and the role of systems in saving lives. The importance of the first 3-5 minutes after cardiac arrest has been further strengthened. The most relevant updates include, among others, the need for lay people to be educated in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by physicians, the role of the dispatch center in helping the caller identify cardiac arrest and ventilation failure, identification of the intravenous access as superior to other routes of drug administration, highlighting the possibility of vector change in defibrillation, importance of provider experience in the context of point‑of‑care ultrasound use, and the role of sedation during CPR.