Ventricular defibrillation: problems of electrical management.

Correction of anoxia, acidosis and intracellular potassium derangement coupled with ECG monitoring is critical to the successful treatment of ventricular fibrillation. Many reports of problems with cardiac defibrillators necessitate review of the energy levels required to achieve an optimum therapeutic effect with electrical countershock. Factors influencing therapeutic threshold, particularly the dose per body weight and adverse side effects of electro-shock, are discussed. Many experts now believe that the maximal delivered energy for each single delivery should not be higher than 250-300 joules.