Defibrillation in my circulation? Hotwire my heart!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Our hearts control how blood flows through our bodies. But what can we do if it stops?
Sheldon Cheskes from Sunnybrook Hospital explored how heart attacks can be treated by. . . electric shock.
They compared three different tools in four hundred heart attack patients over four years. These were standard defibrillation … double sequential external defibrillation – or DSED … and vector-change or VC defibrillation. DSED and VC are new tools that involve more rapid shocks and multiple defibrillator pads.
They monitored each patient until they were discharged from the hospital.
Results? Patients treated with DSED and VC were TWO TIMES more likely to survive to hospital discharge! They believe it’s because of the increased energy and the defibrillator in the back. This allows the voltage to get to all regions of the heart!
Now that gets my blood pumping! Can I take one of these things home? Not into the bath. Got it.
Reference: Cheskes, S., Verbeek, P. R., Drennan, I. R., McLeod, S., Turner, L., Pinto, R., Feldman, M. J., Davis, M. M., Vaillancourt, C., Morrison, L. J., Dorian, P., & Scales, D. C. (2022). Defibrillation Strategies for refractory ventricular fibrillation. The New England Journal of Medicine, 387(21), 1947–1956. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2207304