Australasian paramedic clinical practice guidelines for managing cardiac arrest: An appraisal

There are 10 government-regulated ambulance services (paramedic provider services) in Australasia who are members of the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA). These CAA-member services each produce clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), which guide the practice of their paramedics. Common to each set of CAA-member CPG is a guideline that addresses cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (pulseless VT/VF). This study sought to answer the question: ‘Are current CAA-member CPGs developed with sufficient methodological rigour to consistently produce guidelines that, according to validated, evidence-based best practices, can be recommended for clinical use?’