Abstract
The phenomenon of the fibrillating ventricle suddenly reverting to spontaneous rhythm has been observed in the laboratory animal and in a variety of clinical situations. We have been interested in this phenomenon for some years in the hope that knowledge obtained from a study of spontaneous defibrillation might be applied to the human heart in the prevention of ventricular fibrillation as well as in its management. We have worked with the puppy heart in the laboratory and have noted that the puppy heart, under 6 weeks of age, will almost invariably revert to spontaneous ventricular rhythm after induced ventricular fibrillation. It is said that spontaneous defibrillation is often observed in the mouse, rabbit, guinea pig, pigeon, blackbird, and hedgehog. (We have worked with adult hedgehogs and have not often observed spontaneous defibrillation in that animal.) Since ventricular fibrillation is so difficult to induce in the frog and turtle heart it is thought that it probably occurs only infrequently in these species.
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© 1977 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Stephenson, H.E. (1977). Spontaneous Ventricular Defibrillation and Refractory Defibrillation. In: Safar, P., Elam, J.O. (eds) Advances in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6338-8_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6338-8_25
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6340-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-6338-8
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