What Is the Meaning of Defibrillation?

Defibrillation is a life-saving therapy, if done properly, during cardiac arrest. The purpose of defibrillation is to stop the abnormal heart rhythm, which may lead to sudden death if not reversed immediately.

As with other treatments, there are risks involved when implementing defibrillation, such as heart muscle injury and electrical injury. Therefore, proper training and understanding of the concept of defibrillation is necessary prior to conducting this life-saving technique.

Definition

• Defibrillation, according to the American Heart Association, "is a process in which an electronic device gives an electric shock to the heart." The electronic device is called a defibrillator, which normally consists of "paddles" that are placed on top of the patient's chest to supply the "therapeutic electric shock."

History

• The first known scientific study related to defibrillation dates back to 1849, when a researcher named Carl Ludwig demonstrated the induction of electrical stimulus to the ventricular portion of the heart. The electrical stimulus caused rapid contractions of the heart, which led to cardiac arrest. This phenomenon is the so-called ventricular fibrillation.

  Further investigations were conducted by Dr. Carl Wiggers and Dr. Claude Beck, with the latter being the first to apply the theories of defibrillation to the medical field--successfully saving a human life in 1947.

Purpose

• The primary purpose of defibrillation is to correct fibrillations---irregular contractions---of the heart. These fibrillations are fatal and may cause cardiac arrest, a life-threatening condition in which your heart ceases to pump. Through defibrillation, the normal heartbeat returns, bringing back the regular blood circulation to all parts of your body.

Types

• The traditional way of inducing therapeutic electric shock is through external defibrillation. This is done by health experts manually using defibrillators installed in hospitals and automatically or semi-automatically, using portable defibrillators, by layperson that have undergone basic life-support training.

  The other type of defibrillation, which is more individualized, uses an implantable defibrillator. This small apparatus, for instance, is implanted in your chest to monitor, analyze and react to changes of your heart rate.

Complications

• The complications of defibrillation, as outlined in the Medical Procedures of the University at Buffalo in New York, include "soft tissue, myocardial and epicardial injury to the patient and electrical injuries to health-care providers." These complications, however, may be prevented with proper implementation of the defibrillation method.