European Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2000 for Newly Born Life Support. A statement from the Paediatric Life Support Working Group and approved by the Executive Committee of the European Resuscitation Council.
The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) last issued guidelines for the resuscitation of the newly born infant in 1999 [1]. This was an "Advisory Statement" of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR). Following this, the American Heart Association and the Neonatal Resuscitation Programme Steering Committee of the American Academy of Paediatrics and representatives of the World Health Organisation, together with representatives from ILCOR, undertook a series of evidence-based evaluations of the science of resuscitation which culminated in the publication of "Guidelines 2000 for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care" in August 2000 [2,3]. The Paediatric Life Support Working Party of the European Resuscitation Council has considered this document and the supporting scientific literature and presents the ERC Newly Born Guidelines in this paper. Readers will find few changes to the ILCOR Advisory Statement recommendations as the new evidence that has emerged since its publication in 1999 has been confirmatory of the ILCOR recommendations.