Termination of Ventricular Fibrillation in Man by Externally Applied Electric Countershock

Abstract

VENTRICULAR fibrillation is usually a rapidly fatal arrhythmia that may occur in cardiac patients, in any patient under anesthesia and in drowning and electrocution. In cardiac patients it is a frequent cause of sudden death in the course of coronary-artery disease, a well recognized mechanism of Stokes–Adams attacks, an uncommon toxic reaction to digitalis, quinidine and procaine amide, an occasional terminating event in ventricular tachycardia and a rare, but dreaded, complication of cardiac catheterization. In the operating room ventricular standstill is the usual initial mechanism of cardiac arrest, but ventricular fibrillation occasionally occurs,¹ particularly during hypothermia or during anesthesia with . . .