BACKGROUND:

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation accounts for 1% to 2% of intensive care unit admissions. In 2018, 17.4 per 1000 US pregnant patients requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation were admitted to intensive care units, with mortality of 52% after the first postpartum day.

OBJECTIVE:

To provide essential concepts of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, causes of maternal cardiac arrest and to disseminate algorithms of care and response after activation of a code for probable emergency cesarean section within four minutes after cardiorespiratory arrest, in case of failure to return to spontaneous circulation. The aim is to increase the quality of health care and reduce maternal mortality rates.

METHODOLOGY:

First stage: search in PubMed of articles not older than five years, published in English or Spanish, Clinical Practice Guidelines of Clinical Perinatology, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Second stage: search algorithm ("cardiopulmonary resuscitation "[MeSH-Terms] AND "pregnancy" [MeSH-Terms]) AND ((y_5[Filter]) AND (systematic creview[Filter]) AND (english [Filter]) OR spanish [Filter])).

RESULTS:

Thirty-five articles or web pages were collected from which 19 were selected, including 3 textbooks related to the topic and 3 governmental web pages. In addition, other articles were analyzed to complement knowledge of the topic.

CONCLUSIONS:

Recognition of maternal collapse and timely response by health care personnel will enable high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation; therefore, training of health care personnel should be encouraged.

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