What Is A Defibrillator?

What Is A Defibrillator? Related Information:

A defibrillator is a device used to shock the heart back into a regular pattern when the heartbeat increases due to ventricular defibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Both of these conditions are life threatening and cause the person to lose consciousness when the heart stops beating and pumping blood to the body. At this point the person goes into what is called cardiac arrest.

At one time the use of a defibrillator was limited to a hospital and could only be used by a doctor. However, there are now automatic external defibrillators that can be used in emergency cases where a medical professional is not available. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to use this type of defibrillator, which is applied outside the body. It analyzes the patient’s heart rhythm and advises the person applying first aid whether or not a shock is needed to restore a normal heart beat. If the shock does result in a restored heart rhythm, then the patient is said to have been defibrillated.

An automatic defibrillator is used to treat cardiac arrest because if a patient does not receive immediate treatment he/she can die. This device consists of a small computer with electrodes and electrical circuits. The electrodes collect information about the rhythm of the heart and the microprocessor (computer) interprets them. If ventricular fibrillation has occurred, the computer will recommend electric shock that is delivered through adhesive electrode pads. The shocks go in through the patient’s chest and into the heart. There are special low power electrode pads to use on children because there is too much power in the larger pads and a small child’s heart could not withstand the larger shock. When the defibrillator delivers an electric shock to the heart, it momentarily stuns the heart and stops all activity. This provides the heart with a chance to restart with a normal rhythm.

You do have to be trained to use a defibrillator because there is some risk to the person operating the device and others around him/her if either of them touches the patient’s body at the same time the shock is delivered. Other health risks include skin burns to the patient from the electrodes, abnormal heart rhythms and blood clots. If a patient has a pulse, no matter how weak, a defibrillator should never be used. It should never be used where the patient has to remain close to other people who may be touching some part of the patient’s body.

An implantable defibrillator consists of three parts: a defibrillator, leads and a programmer. The defibrillator is a small metal case that contains the electronics and the batteries. It is similar to a pacemaker in that it is designed to correct arrthymias, but instead of increasing a slow heart rate, a defibrillator detects and corrects both fast and slow heart rates. The leads are specialized, thin, insulated wires that are attached to the defibrillator to sense the rhythm of the heart and deliver the necessary therapy. The programmer stays in the hospital of clinic where medical personnel monitor the defibrillator. The defibrillator itself is surgically implanted in a patient’s chest and connected to the heart.

All three parts of the implantable defibrillator work together to detect either a slow or a fast heart and them deliver the treatment that is needed to correct the problem. It does not cure the problem and the information about the defibrillator is stored in the programmer so that the doctor can refer to it and determine if other kinds of treatments are needed.