BLS Versus ALS - Jakob, Dominik A.; Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K. (2024)
Basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ALS) were both designed to save life in a prehospital setting. However, BLS and ALS achieve their objective in different ways, especially in patients with trauma. BLS is restricted to basic non-invasive procedures without the administration of medications. ALS provides additional treatment options-including the use of needles for injection, administration of medication, together with airway equipment. ALS may also include decompression of a pneumothorax or performing a cricothyrotomy. In the United States, prehospital care is usually provided by emergency medical technicians for BLS or by trained paramedics for ALS, whereas in most European countries, prehospital care is provided by physicians. Because of these differences between American and European emergency medical service (EMS) systems, as well as the disparate injury patterns, especially in regard to penetrating trauma, there are significant differences between the United States and Europe in prehospital care strategies. This chapter provides an overview of prehospital care strategies in general (BLS vs. ALS), addresses the influence of EMS systems on prehospital care, and discusses different approaches in the United States and Europe in terms of associated outcomes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
Keywords: journalArticle