Type of Surgery
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Last updated: 02/17/2009
After defibrillation, the patient's cardiac status, breathing, and vital signs are monitored with a cardiac monitor. Additional tests to measure cardiac damage will be performed, which can include a 12 lead electrocardiogram, a chest...
x-ray, and cardiac catheterization. Treatment options will be determined from the outcome of these procedures. The patient's skin is cleansed to remove gel and, if necessary, electrical burns are treated.
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Defibrillation is the definitive treatment for the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the affected heart with a device called a defibrillator. This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the arrhythmia, and allows normal sinus rhythm to be reestablished by the body's natural pacemaker, in the sinoatrial node of the heart.
Defibrillators can be external, transvenous, or implanted, depending on the type of device used. Some external units, known as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), automate the diagnosis of treatable rhythms, meaning that lay responders or bystanders are able to use them successfully with little, or in some cases no, training.
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Heart surgery is quite a big event and people are keen to know about their particular surgeon.
-Andy Owens
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