facility abcdefg a 'g' in the protocol can stand for go quickly! — a reminder to ensure all assessments and on-scene treatments are completed with speed, in order to get the patient to hospital within the golden hour glucose — the professional rescuer may choose to perform a blood glucose test, and this can form the 'g' or alternately, the 'defg' can stand for "don't ever forget glucose" girl check — is also used as a reminder that all women of child-bearing age need to be tested for potential pregnancy, as this may guide treatment. acbc some trainers and protocols use an additional (small) 'c' in between the a and b, standing for 'cervical spine' or 'consider c-spine'. this is a reminder to be aware of potential neck injuries to a patient, as opening the airway may cause further damage unless a special technique is used. cabc the military frequently use a cabc approach, where the first c stands for "catastrophic haemorrhage". violent trauma cases indicate that major blood loss will kill a casualty before an airway obstruction, so measures to prevent hypovolemic shock should occur first. this is often accomplished by immediately applying a tourniquet to the affected limb. dr abc one of the most widely used adaptations is the addition of "dr" in front of "abc", which stands for danger and response. this refers to the guiding principle in first aid to protect yourself before attempting to help others, and then ascertaining that the patient is unresponsive before attempting to treat them, using systems such as avpu or the glasgow coma score. as the original initialism was devised for in-hospital use, this was not part of the original protocol. in some areas, the related sr abc is used, with the s to mean safety. drsabc a modification to drabc is that when there is no response from the patient, the rescuer is told to send (or shout) for help and to send some signal to your location' drsabcd incorporates the additional s for shout and d for defibrillation. march an expansion on cabc that accounts for the significantly increased risk of hypothermia by a patient due to hypovolemia and the body's subsequent cold weather-like reaction. massive haemorrhage airway respiratory circulation head injury/hypothermia history the 'abc' method of remembering the correct protocol for cpr is almost as old as the procedure itself, and is an important part of the history of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. throughout history, a variety of differing methods of resuscitation had been attempted and documented, although most yielded very poor outcomes. in 1957, peter safar wrote the book abc of resuscitation, which established the basis for mass training of cpr. this new concept was distributed in a 1962 training video called "the pulse of life" created by james jude, guy knickerbocker and peter safar. jude and knickerbocker, along with william kouwenhouen developed the method of external chest compressions, while safar worked with james elam to prove the effectiveness of artificial respiration. their combined findings were presented at annual maryland medical society meeting on september 16, 1960, in ocean city, and gained rapid and widespread acceptance over the following decade, helped by the video and speaking tour the men undertook. the abc system for cpr training was later adopted by the american heart association, which promulgated standards for cpr in 1973. as of 2010, the american heart association chose to focus cpr on reducing interruptions to compressions, and has changed the order in its guidelines to circulation, airway, breathing (cab).