The cardiac defibrillator is a life-saving device used to give the heart a controlled electric shock to jolt it back to beating normally. According to a May 2004 study published in "Medscape Cardiology," cardiac defibrillators are best used in patients with severe types of heart conditions. The use of defibrillators in such patients can ultimately help prevent further heart damage such as sudden heart death, according to a statement released by Medscape Internal Medicine in January 2005.
According to the American Heart Association, many individuals with sustained tachycardia, or irregular heart rate, benefit from the use of a implantable cardioverter defibrillator -- ICD -- or pacemaker. These devices can detec...
Heart defibrillators are used to treat cardiac arrest--a disease in which the heart stops beating due to several reasons. They are used to treat cardiac arrest caused by irregular heart beats--heart beats that are too fast or e...
... by abnormal heart beats such as fast or erratic heart beats. Treatment for cardiac arrest caused by irregular heart beats is aimed at getting the heart to beat regularly and several types of cardiac defibrillators may be us...
An implantable cardio defibrillator, or ICD, is a small electrical impulse generator. The ICD is traditionally used in patients who are at risk for serious cardiac attacks which can lead to sudden cardiac death. These attacks...
A heart defibrillator controls the heart rhythm. It sends an electrical shock through the heart when it beats too quickly or becomes irregular, notes the University of Chicago Medical Center. An electrical shock is used to retu...
... a medical emergency, a cardiac arrest victim has the highest possibility of surviving if revived within four minutes, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. An automated external defibrillator, or AED, i...
According to the American Heart Association, defibrillation does not restart the heart; it stuns the the heart briefly to allow the heart's natural pacemakers to resume electrical activity. Knowing the proper procedure for defi...
... known as the sinus node, produce electrical impulses that trigger the heart to contract rhythmically. Arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, causes the heart to pump either too quickly or too slowly. Defibrillation describes...
Prior to the advent and use of heart defibrillators, the survival rate from a sudden cardiac arrest was very poor. The only tools that rescuers and non-medical trained bystanders had was CPR. Today defibrillators are availabl...
Automatic internal cardiac defibrillators are more commonly known as implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs. This life-saving tool can prevent sudden cardiac death in patients at high risk for the development of fata...
There are three kinds of defibrillators--machines designed to deliver a shock to the heart when it goes into a life threatening rhythm. One type, the external defibrillator, is used in and out of the hospital. External defibril...
Internal defibrillators are similar in size and structure to pacemakers. They monitor the rhythm of the patient's heart and can give a small electric shock if the heart starts to develop an abnormal rhythm, resetting the heart'...
The heart is predominantly made up of muscle (also known as cardiac muscle). Like all muscles, cardiac muscles contract in response to electrical stimulation. The contraction of cardiac muscle is carefully controlled to ensure ...
Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) are a class of electronic devices manufactured to deliver currents of electricity to the heart in response to abnormal heart rate. This usually is enough to "shock" the heart back ...
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a type of electronic device that constantly monitors heart rate and rhythm. It is usually implanted in the chest area right near the heart, and when it senses an abnormal rate ...
A defibrillator or automated external defibrillator is a device that can restore normal heart rhythm to a person whose heart has stopped. The defibrillator is designed to be used by the lay public while waiting for medical prof...
Your heart contains its own pacemaker called the sino-atrial (SA) node. Your SA node initiates electrical signals that travel throughout your heart muscle to tell it when to beat. It signals your heart muscle to speed up or slo...
...ontract, it can't pump blood out to the body. The brain and tissues become starved for oxygen, and the body eventually dies. The heart is unable to "snap out of it" and return to its normal rhythm. A defibrillator jolts the ...
An implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD) is a small device that can be considered the ultimate insurance policy for a patient with severe heart disease. If a patient suffers a heart attack that injures the muscle and reduces ...
