American Heart Association updated the guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiovascular care in November 2019. This focused update incorporates the systematic review conducted by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, an expert group consisting of hundreds of international resuscitation scientists, to identify the new evidence supporting the basic and advanced life support and first aid in emergency medical care. This focused update involves the life chain of CPR (dispatcher-assisted CPR and cardiac arrest centers), advanced cardiovascular life support (advanced airways, vasopressors, and extracorporeal CPR), and first aid for presyncope. This present review aims to interpret these updates by reviewing the literature and comparing the recommendations in this update with previous guidelines.