To maintain a current Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification, health care providers are required to participate in a refresher course every 2 years. Because some hospitals do not require anesthesia staff to have ACLS certification to maintain hospital credentials, it is easy to let the recertification window elapse.

Resuscitation science continues to evolve, especially with the application of outcomes-based research methodology. In November 2005, the American Heart Association (AHA) published the most recent Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care in the journal Circulation, as well as on the AHA website at www.americanheart.org.

In 2001 the AHA revamped the ACLS guidelines and course to a casebased approach. The basic ACLS Provider course now provides the knowledge and tests the skills to manage the initial minutes of an adult ventricular fibrillation arrest. There are also 10 core cases covering the management of patients suffering respiratory arrests and acute ischemic strokes, as well as life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. The Emergency Cardiovascular Care handbook is strongly recommended as an adjunctive text to the ACLS Provider manual.