Ventricular Fibrillation

Abstract

VENTRICULAR fibrillation, usually a rapidly fatal arrhythmia, occurs most commonly in coronary-artery disease, in patients with atrioventricular block (that is, Stokes-Adams disease) and in toxic reactions to digitalis, quinidine and procaine amide. Occasionally, it succeeds ventricular tachycardia, and it is a rare but dreaded complication of cardiac catheterization. In the operating room, although ventricular standstill is the usual initial mechanism of cardiac arrest, ventricular fibrillation does occur at times, particularly during hypothermia or during anesthesia with cyclopropane. Ventricular fibrillation is also the mechanism of death in some unusual accidents, particularly electrocution.Ventricular fibrillation causes immediate cessation of circulation, it rarely . . .