Defibrillation – Purpose, Types and Importance

Summary: Defibrillation is one of the most effective treatments to restore the function of heart of an individual who have a cardiac arrest. Medical device called defibrillator is used to supply shock to the affected heart for reestablishing the normal heart rhythm. To make the deployment of defibrillators more widespread, it is important to join first aid course to learn the proper technique.

Defibrillation is the therapeutic process of sending controlled electric shock to the heart by using a device called defibrillator to stabilize an irregular and extremely rapid heartbeat. This helps in restoring the normal contraction rhythm in the heart.

Purpose

Defibrillation is the definitive treatment performed to correct the life-threatening ventricular fibrillation of the heart or cardiac arrhythmia that could lead to cardiac arrest. It is essential to perform the defibrillation immediately after an individual has experienced a cardiac emergency and becomes unresponsive and no pulse is detected. However, it should not be performed on a cardiac arrest victim who is responsive as it could disturb the heart rhythm of the patient significantly. 

Description

Ventricular fibrillation causes malfunctioning of the heart as it stops the pumping of blood leading to cardiac arrest and even brain damage. It has been found that around 10% of the ability of restarting the heart is lost with every single minute, when the heart is in fibrillation. Even death can happen if the normal rhythm of the heart is not reestablished through defibrillation. 

The defibrillator used to perform the process of defibrillation is an electronic device that comes with electrocardiogram leads and paddles. While performing the technique, the paddles are placed perfectly on the patient’s chest and a brief electric shock is delivered to the heart. It enables the natural pacemaker of the heart to regain control and the normal heart rhythm is established instantly.

Types of Defibrillator

Manual external defibrillator

This medical device is designed with inbuilt electrocardiogram readers and it is used to treat specific conditions of heart. Most often ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation is diagnosed by manual external defibrillator in critical or emergency situations. However, some other rhythms can also be treated by the shocks delivered, to regain the normal heart condition. The electrical energy is supplied through pads or paddles that are placed on the chest of the patient.

Manual External Defibrillator

However, it is important to decide the voltage of the shock supplied (in joules) and it largely depends on the proven guidelines and also on the experience of the healthcare service provider. Trained individual with medical knowledge can only operate manual external defibrillator successfully. So, it is mostly found in hospitals and ambulances. 

Manual Internal Defibrillator

A manual internal defibrillator uses the readings of electrocardiogram to show the adequate amount of electrical energy to be supplied to the heart of the patient.

Manual Internal Defibrillator

In this case the voltage shock is supplied through internal paddles that are placed in direct contact with the patient’s chest. However, skilled professional is required to ensure the proper operation of the device. It is exclusively found in the operation theaters. 

Automated External Defibrillator

The functioning of this simple-to-use portable medical device is based on computer technology.

Automated External Defibrillator

It has been designed essentially to analyze the rhythm of the heart itself and also shows the user whether a shock is needed. This automatic unit takes around 10-20 seconds to diagnose the rhythm.  

Why it is important to learn the operation of automated external defibrillator (AED)?

When a sudden cardiac arrest happens, the first step is to call 911. Providing Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is also essential. However, sometime it is not enough and then defibrillation becomes the most effective treatment to make the person survive until any professional medical help is available. A number of studies suggest that the chance of survival of a cardiac arrest victim becomes considerably high when defibrillation is delivered immediately.

How to perform AED?

Thus, it is important to join an effective first aid course to learn the proper operation of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), as it is easy to use in comparison to other defibrillators available. It will help you to add few more valuable minutes to the life of the affected person.