DEFIBRILLATION

Defibrillation

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of early defibrillation on survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). It also focuses on the expansion of the time and resources to continue to push for the use of automatic external defibrillators (AED) in the public sector. It also discusses that when sudden cardiac arrest occurs outside the hospital environment, the prognosis is poor. In the absences of early defibrillation resuscitation efforts almost always prove futile. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for survival rates and tries to describe the overall effect of early defibrillation on survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). It also presents the services of the hospital during cardiovascular arrests, and what type of services they offer. It also discusses about personal use of defibrillators at home and ways to use it effectively. The main type of defibrillator focused in this study is the Implantable cardio-verter defibrillators (ICD).

Defibrillation

Introduction

Death has habitually fascinated humankind. The interest on death and in the method of dying is more very old than civilization itself. In fact, archaeological findings of burial sites and evidences of ritual funerals attest to this interest. Its inexorability and the unknown associated with it have long been focus of conjectures. The process of dying has always been a source of fear, not only due to its ultimate result, but also because of the suffering usually associated with it.

While many fields of knowledge have been dedicated to the study of death throughout human history, the recent progresses of science and medicine have brought into discussion many issues regarding death and dying, such as palliative care and euthanasia or one's right to dignity during the process of dying. The important aging of the world's population, in action in the last decades, has put death and dying into the forefront of societal attention. Extremely medical zed all over the world until recently, death is currently being more regarded as a natural and expected part of life—and the quest for a peaceful death—as a natural human right. (Taylor, 2002)

In order for the heart to work effectively, it needs to pump in a controlled and regular rhythm, with coordination between the atria and ventricles. If these cease to work in unison, then the result in the worst case scenario may be death, depending on the type of arrhythmia. Cardio version is the procedure used to convert an abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia to a normal or sinus heart rhythm. There are two types of cardio-version: The first uses pharmacologic agents and the second uses direct current. Depending on the type of arrhythmia, the stable patient will usually be offered a pharmacologic agent prior to being offered electrical cardio version. There are many ant arrhythmic pharmacologic agents that work by various mechanisms to try to modify the heart rhythm and return it to sinus. However, the term cardio version usually refers to electrical cardio version. This can be an emergency procedure on an unconscious patient in ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT); ...