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. 1974 Jan;53(1):310–319. doi: 10.1172/JCI107552

Electrical Dose for Ventricular Defibrillation of Large and Small Animals Using Precordial Electrodes

L A Geddes 1, W A Tacker 1, J P Rosborough 1, A G Moore 1, P S Cabler 1
PMCID: PMC301466  PMID: 4808643

Abstract

Electrical ventricular defibrillation of heavy subjects (over 100 kg body weight) is uncommon for the human or any animal species. This paper reports trans-chest ventricular defibrillation of subjects ranging in weight from 2.3 to 340 kg using conventional defibrillation current (heavily damped sine wave) of 0.3-30 ms duration. It was found that a body weight-to-electrical-shock strength relationship exists and can be expressed in terms of either electrical energy or peak current. For the duration of current pulse used clinically (3-10 ms), the relationship between energy requirement and body weight is expressed by the equation U = 0.73 W1.52, where U is the energy in W·s and W is the body weight in kilograms. The current relationship is I = 1.87 W0.88 where I is the peak current in amperes and W is the body weight in kilograms. The energy dose is somewhat more species and weight dependent and ranges from 0.5 to 10 W·s/kg (0.23-4.5 W·s/lb). The data obtained indicate that the peak current dose is virtually species and weight independent and is therefore a better indicator than energy for electrical defibrillation with precordial electrodes. In the duration range of 3-10 ms, the electrical dose is very nearly 1 A/kg of body weight (0.45 A/lb).

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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