Reduction of energy required for defibrillation by delivering shocks in orthogonal directions in the dog.
Reduction of energy required to defibrillate (ERD) seems to represent a necessary condition for intensive development of implantable defibrillator, so as for minimization of cardiac and pulmonary damages provoked by high energy transthoracic defibrillation electric shocks. The present work describes a defibrillation method using shocks delivered in orthogonal directions and separated by a 100 ms delay. Defibrillation threshold measured with classical unidirectional shocks on 30 dogs has been found to be 286.8 +/- 22.2 joules. In the same animals, defibrillation threshold measured by use of orthogonal shocks has been found to be 101.4 +/- 14.9 joules. We conclude that this crossed shocks method leads to a substantial reduction of ERD (64%).
Bardou
A L
AL
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) Unité 256, Hôpital Broussais, Paris, France.
Degonde
J
J
Birkui
P J
PJ
Auger
P
P
Chesnais
J M
JM
Duriez
M
M
D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004560:Electricity; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000517:prevention & control*