Ventricular Fibrillation Waveform Analysis during Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the primary rhythm associated with cardiac arrest characterized as rapid, disorganized contractions of the heart with complex electrocardiogram (ECG) patterns. Recent studies have reported that performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) procedure prior to shock increases the survival rate especially especially when VF is untreated for more than 5 minutes. The waveform analysis is objective help in the choice of the right therapy (shock parameters, shock first or CPR first, drug administration). This analysis is a precondition of individually optimized defibrillation and contribute substantially to an increased quality of CPR and reduce delivery of failed rescue shock. Animal and clinical studies confirmed that ventricular fibrillation waveform analysis contains information to reliably predict the countershock success rate and further improved countershock outcome prediction. WANCHUN TANG ( ) Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine Keck School of Medicine of The University of Southern California 35-100 Bob Hope Drive Rancho Mirage, CA 92270, USA Phone: (760) 778-4911 Fax: (760) 778-3468 E-mail: [email protected] YONGQIN LI • WANCHUN TANG SIGNA VITAE 2010; 5 (Suppl 1): 63 65