Treatment of Unexpected Cardiac Arrest by External Electric Stimulation of the Heart

Abstract

CARDIAC arrest may occur unexpectedly during various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, particularly under anesthesia. Though infrequent (1 in every 500 to 5000 operations^{1 , 2}), each accident is a catastrophe. Despite the wide, active interest in this problem current therapy is too often unsuccessful.The commonly recognized mechanisms of cardiac arrest are ventricular standstill and ventricular fibrillation; standstill is the usual cause. In a compilation of 1200 cases of cardiac arrest, Stephenson et al.³ placed the occurrence of standstill at 88 per cent. Of 141 cases^{4 5 6 7 8} in which the mechanisms were specifically diagnosed by electrocardiograms or direct observations of the heart, . . .