Utstein-Style Guidelines on Uniform Reporting of Resuscitation Events

Leveraging the power of CPR research data

Since the early 1990’s, Utstein-style guidelines for uniform reporting of CPR and other emergency conditions have been developed. From the original paper (Cummins et al, Circulation 1991;84:960-975): “The nomenclature of cardiac arrest presents a classic problem in semantics – the same term has different meanings to different people. The Utstein recommendations are an attempt to solve this problem by presenting consensus definitions.” Utstein refers to the meeting place, the Utstein Abbey in Norway, where the original meeting on uniform reporting of data from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was held. The output of the Utstein guidelines included a reporting template including agreed upon variables that characterize each CPR event and inform patient outcomes along with standardized definitions of these variables.

An international veterinary Utstein task force was convened in April 2013 in San Francisco to initiate the project. Consensus was subsequently achieved through multiple asynchronous voting rounds conducted via electronic surveys. In 2016, the task force published veterinary Utstein-style reporting guidelines. Since then, the reporting template and definitions for hospital, animal, event and outcome variables have been widely adopted in clinical CPR studies and form the foundation of a CPR registry containing data from more than 2,000 animals treated for cardiopulmonary arrest. 

In 2026, a RECOVER Utstein task force composed of an international group of subject matter experts is developing guidelines for the standardized reporting of resuscitation events in newborn puppies and kittens.