Shocking Heart in Cardiac Arrest May Be Harmful

An animal study has found that shocking the heart 10 minutes after cardiac arrest probably will not help and may be detrimental. The study was reported at the American College of Emergency Physicians Scientific Assembly 2002 in Seattle (WA, USA).

Researchers used two clinical scenarios for sudden cardiac arrest in real-time by waiting between eight to 10 minutes and 10-12 minutes from the onset to begin resuscitation efforts. This is about the amount of time it takes for first responders to arrive at the scene of a patient in cardiac arrest. The subjects were treated with one of three strategies: immediate defibrillation, a combination of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) then intravenous drugs followed by defibrillation, or intravenous drugs and CPR simultaneously before defibrillation. The researchers found that immediate defibrillation was least effective and there was a significant delay in restoring circulation. There were no significant differences in subjects resuscitated at eight to 10 minutes or at 10-12 minutes.

"Although rapid defibrillation is hands down the best method to resuscitate victims minutes after sudden cardiac arrest, we now have additional evidence that indicates the longer someone is in prolonged cardiac arrest, providing immediate defibrillation is not the most effective way to resuscitate because the injured heart is only further damaged by shocking it,” said James Menegazzi, Ph.D., lead author and research professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (PA, USA).




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