AED Defibrillators
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Defibrillators
The heart is a vital organ in the human body. The normal pace at which the heart beats is 50-100 beats per minute, but due to a number of reasons the heart beat may increase abnormally to such an extent that cardiac arrest can occur.
Defibrillators are used to prevent this arrhythmia or sudden increase in the heart beat rate. Defibrillators use an electrical shock mechanism to control these irregular rates, or to kickstart a stopped heart.
There are two types of defibrillators “Manual internal defibrillators” and “Automated external defibrillators” abbreviated as AED.
Defibrillators work by passing an electric shock which is controlled by current density. The biphasic waveform normalizes the pace at which heart beats by depolarizing the critical mass of the heart muscle.
Portable defibrillators are now being carried in ambulances to take immediate action when necessary.
Defibrillators are used for treating severe cardiac arrests like ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia.
The automatic defibrillators can be even used by a lay man as the instrument itself diagnoses the necessary shock rates required to bring back the normal heart rate of the person.
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator abbreviated as ICD works in a similar fashion, continuously keeping an eye on heart rhythms and if there is an irregularity, it uses the shock therapy to normalize it before the person has a cardiac arrest.
The implanted defibrillators have canisters that are driven by a small battery and are placed in the muscle below the collar bone, and the connection to the heart is established by leads which are insulated wires that don’t require any replacement. The defibrillator battery needs to be changed as it gets depleted after four to seven years.
The American Heart Association is promoting public access defibrillation (PAD) programs which have increased the rate of survivor surviving cardiac arrhythmia by up to 80 percent.
Nowadays public access defibrillation units can be found in public places like railway and bus stations, shopping malls and airports and these are ready to use in case of emergency.
Special care must be taken to keep these defibrillators fully functional, and so different strategies like network strategies are implemented to monitor the defibrillators through either wire or wireless methods.
Some defibrillators can also be operated as voice commands are given. This makes using this device more user friendly.
There are some implantable defibrillators which have a mechanism to record the heart’s electrical pattern when the cardiac rhythm becomes irregular. This mechanism also assists the doctor to plan the future progress and treatment plans for the person.
Defibrillators are increasing the lifespan of the person to a significant rate so that we can live longer with our beloved ones. For more information see our site CPR First Aid.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 31st, 2010 at 3:31 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.