Portable defibrillators are intended to fight one of the leading causes of premature death in the United States: cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, people are not prone to have a heart attack in a convenient location; say, in a hospital or near an EMT station. No, most of them take place at home, in restaurants, at the gym, airport, a shopping mall and a host of other very inconvenient places.

That is where a portable defibrillator comes in. It has been determined that the first five minutes after the onset of the attack are the most critical. For every minute that passes the odds of surviving drop by ten percent! Yet, studies also show that only around five percent of victims survive when the event occurs in one of those locations. That is over 460,000 people dying every year! As a result, many communities have pushed to make some sort of defibrillator available in high-traffic zones: e.g. malls, community centers, parks.

In a normal heart, a regular heartbeat keeps the blood flowing throughout the body; all of it regulated by the heart’s own pacemaker. A small, simple series of electrical pulses is all that is required. But, for whatever reason(s), that pulse can be interrupted and/or scrambled. This causes what doctors call ventricular fibrillation (VF), the heart is no longer able to contract and expand because its rhythm is so disorganized. Often in this situation, people will try CPR, but it is, at best, a temporary stop gap. CPR does improve the chance of survival, buy a few more precious minutes, but people rarely recover from VF through CPR alone. The true mitigating factor that saves people is the prompt application of some kind of defibrillation.

In some sections of the nation, the survival rate for heart attacks in a public location is as low as one percent! And this is not just in rural areas; New York City is on that list. With the advent of portable defibrillators, some of which are fully automated, the prospect of saving more lives in the future looks most promising. They make it possible for ordinary people who have no emergency response or medical training to use the devices effectively. As recently as 2003, a study found that defibrillators used by trained volunteers almost doubled the survival rate of heart attack patients who had suffered their attacks in a public place.

Heart defibrillators come in a variety of kinds: external, implanted, monophasic and biphasic, to name a few. All of them have the same purpose: helping the heart return to its normal heart beat. The human heart is a true marvel of creation. Anyone who doesn’t believe that, just look at man’s efforts at creating a replacement. Size of the original model: about the same as a person’s fist. Size of the replacement – including at the necessary external "accoutrements": massive. The real one’s power source and "control center": a small cluster of cells known as the sinus node. The matching components on the artificial one: big and bulky.

Now, normally the heart’s natural pacemaker fires a series of small electrical pulses through the cardiac muscle, which keeps it beating at a steady pace. And, as the poets say: "Every beat separates a man from eternity." Yet, with age, injury and/or disease, that rhythm can become irregular. As a result, the heart is rendered unable to contract. It’s a condition called: ventricular fibrillation (VF). Decades ago, medical researchers discovered that the best way to "jump start" the heart and get its normal rhythm – defibrillation – restored was with a mild electrical jolt delivered right to the surface of the organ. Of course, outside of a hospital’s operating room, that’s not always possible. More often than not, some sort of external defibrillator must be used.

Between network television shows, both dramas and comedies, and various medical programs, we have all seen a person having a heart attack get zapped with the little paddles as a doctor yells: "Clear!" Heart disease claims nearly a quarter of a million people a year, and that is just in the United States. From the moment someone’s heart goes into VF, the first five minutes is critical. That’s where some type of defibrillator comes into play. External devices are applied to the chest, internal ones are implanted as part of a surgical procedure, usually in conjunction with an artificial pacemaker. Also, often times the internal models will have some kind of telemetry component that records the patient’s heart activity and then download it to the doctor’s office, thus enabling him/her to monitor the patient’s progress.

So, while the heart can usually take care of itself, it’s a great comfort to know that modern medical science has reached a point where some kind of heart defibrillator is available to help it, when needed. And most people hope they never require that kind of assistance.

Until quite recently, implanted defibrillators (or implanted cardioverter defibrillator, I.C.D.), were not widely known among the general public. Oh sure, lots of people knew about pacemakers; they’ve been around for years. But, the idea of a miniaturized defibrillator put inside a person’s body, that was the stuff of science fiction. However, ever since it was announced that Vice President Dick Cheney had one, public interest (and knowledge) has increased. And with good reason; the devices are credited with saving the lives of what medical science declares the sickest types of heart patients.

For many years, doctors were under the impression that patients suffering from heart disease died from a progressive failure of the organ. In lay terms, the heart just got tired and stopped pumping. In that kind of patient, an implanted defibrillator (I.C.D.) would not be a viable course of treatment. However, recent studies have found that the more usual cause of death was a sudden malfunction of the normal sinus rhythm of the heart. This situation is precisely what an I.C.D. is designed for. The device examines the electrical signals in the heart at regular intervals and watches for any signs of an irregular heartbeat. If detected, it acts within seconds to jolt the heart and return it a normal beat. As the mechanism is within the patient’s body, it can, if necessary, give a more potent shock than an external defibrillator. Also, often times the device will have some sort of telemetry component that will record the patient’s heart activity and download it to the doctor’s office, thus enabling him/her to monitor the patient’s progress.

Now, some people might say: "Whoa, wait, I’ve seen ‘E/R’, I know what those things do to a person. I don’t want to be lying in bed, watching TV and then – bam! I get jolted right out of bed when that thing zaps me." That is not the case. Since the shock is delivered directly to the heart, the physical manifestations are actually quite limited. Patients report feeling a slight tingle or, feeling weak and lethargic one moment, and literally energized the next.

It is clear that those patients in the poorest health get the most benefit from implanted defibrillators. Yet, one must also consider that patients with chronic heart disease, those with comparatively good heart function, are not helped by them. This fact needs to be kept in mind as the number of I.C.D.’s implanted is going up at a rate of greater than 20 percent each year.

A study carried out in 1996 examined 196 patients at various medical centers all over the country, all of whom had suffered a minimum of one heart attack before. The purpose of the study was to compare the life-saving features of the defibrillator to the severity of the patients’ heart disease. Based on this study, it was found that high-risk patients benefited greatly from the implantation of an I.C.D. Now, over 150,000 people all over the world have an implanted defibrillator, and it’s a certainty that they save lives. Its creation is the culmination of approximately twenty years of biomedical research.

Monophasic Defibrillator. Big words. So, to the average person, what do they mean? They represent the standard defibrillator used in most hospitals, and the device gives a single pulse of electrical energy that goes in one direction between the two pads (or paddles) that are applied to a person’s chest. If a recording were made of this, it would show a single (monophasic) wave.

In a normal, healthy heart, its beat is regulated by electrical impulses that start in the sinus node. Sounds like it should be describing something in the nose; but, in fact, it is the natural pacemaker for the heart. From there, it fans out across the heart muscle along special tissue and causes the atria and ventricles to contract and expand in a regular pattern. The result? The heart fills and empties in a systematic fashion, thus insuring it fulfill its vital function for the continued life of the individual.

But, often there comes a time when the heart goes into what is known as Ventricular Fibrillation (VF), and then its organized electrical activity malfunctions, replaced by utter chaos. The result? The heart no longer fills and empties. Instead, it quivers (or fibrillates) and stops pumping altogether. If it is not corrected within several minutes, brain damage, nerve damage and/or death will result. That’s where a defibrillator comes in. It delivers an electrical jolt that, in essence, gives the chaos a "time-out" and allows the heart a chance to restart its regular electrical activity.

In order to work properly, a monophasic defibrillator often has to use high levels of electrical power. Often, a first jolt will be 200 joules. If a second shock is needed, the level rises to 300. If that fails, the device is increased to its highest level, 360 joules.

On the other hand, with a biphasic defibrillator the electricity goes from one pad, through the chest, to the second pad, and back. It reverses and therefore travels in two directions. As a result, it gives two jolts of electrical energy, and does so using less energy than a monophasic defibrillator. Rather than start with 200 joules, a biphasic device uses 100 to 150 joules, and 200 is normally the maximum amount.

Finally, the biphasic defibrillator has the ability to adjust itself based on the patient. It’s no secret that different people have different body types. As a result, the degree to which they resist the flow of electricity through their chest also differs. A biphasic defibrillator can determine this and modify the jolt it delivers, and improve the patient’s chance for survival. The monophasic defibrillators do not have this feature.

Samaritan, Philips, Medtronic, Guidant, Heartsine, Defibtech Lifeline, and Zoll (among others) are names not known to the average person; as they are defibrillator manufacturers. Yet, they perform a very vital role in our modern society. While few people may know these companies, they certainly know their products: defibrillators.

These days, cardiac problems are a leading cause of early death in the United States. As a result, all kinds of defibrillators: automatic, implanted, portable etc. are incredibly important, and are used in hospitals, clinics, ambulances and a host of other locations.

Due to the critical importance of these machines, defibrillator manufacturers must be held to a high standard of quality control. They and their distributors are required to keep track of the locations of all of their products. Back in June of 2006, Guidant had to issue a recall for its PRIZM 2 DR 1861, CONTAK RENEWAL H135 and CONTAK RENEWAL H155 implantable models when it was revealed that they could short out and cause death or very serious injury. The fact that the company had known about the problem for three years did little to improve their public image. The company said that when it took into account all the mitigating factors, it felt that removing the defective defibrillators from people’s chests posed a greater health risk than leaving them in place. After all, the company argued, the devices were scheduled for removal and replacement as part of their standard operating procedure.

And Guidant has not been the only defibrillator manufacturer forced to carry out a recall of their implantable devices. In recent years, Medtronic and St. Jude’s Medical have had to do likewise. Harvard Medical School carried out a joint study with the Food and Drug Administration, looking into the rate of defects among implanted defibrillators. The results: they found that an increase in the number of reported defects, yet the number of replacements due to these same defects had decreased. This trend indicated that even though the incidents of malfunctions were going up, efforts at replacing the devices were not keeping pace with the problem. Only the future will tell as to whether or not the industry works harder at improving its image.

Defibrillator pads are essential to the operation of a defibrillator. The sole function of a defibrillator is to zap someone’s irregular heartbeat back to a normal, steady, functioning rhythm. The electrodes of a defibrillator are placed in the defibrillator pads. Defibrillator pads help the electrode deliver the energy to the patient’s heart. They act as a middleman so the energy can move to the heart.

To help maximize the amount of energy that gets to the heart and to prevent the skin from burning, emergency technicians place gels between the skin and the defibrillator pads. These gels usually have petrolatum or lanolin. Petrolatum and lanolin create a better transition of energy from the defibrillator battery to the heart.

Defibrillator pads come in different shapes and sizes. They look like mittens without the thumbs and are usually white. Most emergency technicians will carry several different sizes of defibrillator pads. The amount of charge that goes through the pads depends on the size of the pads. A charge that is meant for a full-grown man should not be delivered to a child. A child is smaller and may not be able to sustain the charge.

Using Defibrillator Pads on Kids

Kids are smaller than adults, but they’re not immune to heart failure. Emergency technicians sometimes have to use heart defibrillators on small children. This usually occurs because the child has been through a traumatic experience and needs to have his or heart calmed down. They also may come across a child who does have a heart problem. Some kids are born with heart problems and others experience heart problems as a residual side effect of other ailments.

As mentioned before, kids cannot receive a shock that is as powerful as one administered to an adult. Each shock given to an adult is about 150 Joules. The amount of charge given to a patient is based on the person’s weight. For children, medical technicians use age to determine the appropriate charge. Usually a 50-Joule charge is sufficient for kids that are younger than eight.

Now, we’ve talked about how giving a wrong charge to a child can be fatal. However, the converse is true for adults. Giving an adult a charge meant for a child is insufficient. So it’s very important to get the right defibrillator pads.

To make it easier, some defibrillator producers make children defibrillator pads and conductors that look different than adult defibrillators. For example, Philips requires that all of its children’s external defibrillator pads and connectors look different than ones made for adults. Philips uses a tiered system to identified these products for the right age group. The package containing a child’s connector has a pink teddy bear. This unique packaging is supposed to grab the attention of the emergency responder so they don’t accidentally use the wrong conductor or defibrillator pad.

With a strong defibrillator battery, a defibrillator can save thousands of lives each year, but in order to do so the defibrillator battery needs to be charged and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Battery malfunction or lack of power can result in the death of the patient because the heart can’t be shocked back into rhythm in time.

Caregivers need to know how long a defibrillator battery will last in order to ensure that lives can be saved. The shelf life of a typical battery is typically around four years, but using the defibrillator, running battery insertion tests, and training with the machine can all reduce battery life and power. Defibrillator batteries are often replaced sooner than needed because of concerns that the battery may be depleted or weakening.

Some manufacturers have produce battery packs designed to eliminate some of these concerns. Battery packs hold more energy than traditional batteries, ensuring that the defibrillator will have power when needed. Some come with memory that charts the batteries charging and use history.

In addition, defibrillator batteries or battery packs may come with a charger, which allows users to keep batteries in top working condition. If purchasing a charger separately, look for one that will handle future chemical variants and different brands of batteries. This way the charger can be used for a longer period of time and won’t be obsolete if you purchase a different brand of defibrillator.

Finally, manufacturers, understanding the importance of defibrillator batteries to performance, sometimes provide software for battery management. This is particularly useful if you are handling the maintenance on more than one battery. The software alerts users to the state of the battery, giving users valuable information on when a new battery is needed.

When you replace a defibrillator battery, consider recycling it. The NRBC Call2Recycle program offers an environmentally sound way to recycle used defibrillator batteries. You simply ship the used or expired batteries to participating locations and they handle the recycling for you. Some things to keep in mind for shipping:

• Try to make sure that the batteries are fully discharged before shipping.

• Ship only one battery per box. If you need to ship more than one, either use separate boxes or pack the batteries in such a way that they will not touch each other during shipping.

A defibrillator battery is one of the most important components for an external automated device. Without it, there would be no life saving charge. By using some of the newer products and software, you can ensure that your defibrillator always has the necessary energy.

So you’ve made the decision to get a defibrillator, but before you pull the trigger, you should check out some defibrillator reviews. It’s always a good idea to do some product research before you make big purchases. Especially if the big purchase is also one that could save the life of you or someone you love.

The Best of the Best Defibrillators

The HeartStart Home Defibrillator made by Philips is consistently rated as one of the most effective, easy to use external home defibrillators out there. Medical sources such as the Mayo Clinic as well as well-respected news sources, such as the Wall Street Journal, have pointed to his product as a leader in the industry.

The HeartStart Defibrillator is recognized for usability because the machine literally does all of the work. It comes with a step-by-step tutorial that talks you through the process. The more quickly you move, the quicker it gives you advice.

This device reads the person’s heartbeat to determine if they need a shock. After it reads the heartbeat, you hit a well-marked button that will deliver the shock. However, if the machine doesn’t think the person needs a shock, it will not distribute the energy to the patient when you punch the button.

This defibrillator gets stellar reviews, but it is expensive. It costs between $1,000 and $2,000 depending on the accessories you buy. It’s possible that your insurance company will knock down this cost. Insurance companies are usually only interested in picking up some of the tab if you or someone in your family has a known heart condition.

The HeartStart Home Defibrillator is well recognized in the industry as a good external defibrillator, but it’s not the only one. You should talk to your doctor about your defibrillator choice before you consider making a purchase.

Finding Defibrillator Reviews

There are a couple of ways you can go about finding defibrillator reviews. For starters, you can get on Google or another Internet search engine and enter "defibrillator reviews." If you’re trying to decide between two defibrillators, you might just want to enter the name of the defibrillator and see what you get.

The Internet has a vast array of information, which can be very helpful. However, it can be harmful because a lot of misinformation is distributed through the Internet. To make sure that you’re getting valuable information, know your source. Company Web sites, medical journals and reviews written by medical experts are the most valuable defibrillator reviews out there.

Lawyers also write reviews of defibrillators and defibrillator recalls. Though these reviews may offer some good information, be careful. Some lawyers write these defibrillator reviews to attract clients who feel they’ve been wronged by a particular company.

Defibrillators save thousands of lives everyday, but you may be wondering, "What is a defibrillator and how does it work?" Simply put, a defibrillator is a machine that sends an electrical current to a person’s heart in order to shock the heart back into a normal heart rate. Defibrillators are often used in cases of sudden cardiac arrest.

When a person suffers cardiac arrest, they lose consciousness and cease normal breathing. Although the terms are commonly interchanged, a cardiac arrest is different than a heart attack. Strictly speaking, with a heart attack a person suffers from a blockage of the arteries and may experience chest pain and other symptoms. Generally, heart attack victims do not lose consciousness.

Cardiac arrest is caused by ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Here, the heart beats too fast and shuts down, no longer pumping blood throughout the body. This can result in sudden cardiac death.

In the past, defibrillators were used only in hospitals because the units were large and expensive. Hospital units are still more expensive than home models and they work by sending an electrical impulse through paddles placed on a person’s chest. Today, however, units exist that are portable and that are implanted into a patient’s chest.

Automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, are becoming more common in places like schools, businesses, and sporting events. These portable units are about the size of child’s lunchbox and can be used by individuals with limited training. In fact, many of these units audibly guide users through a series of steps to help the patient.

The AED reads the patient’s heart rate rhythm and administers an electrical current to the heart. Studies show that the more quickly defibrillation treatment is given, the more likely a patient is to survive. Although CPR can sustain an individual, it cannot restore a patient’s heart rhythm like a defibrillator can.

If someone is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, call 9-1-1 and administer a defibrillator as soon as possible. Acting quickly can save the patient’s life.

Thus, the question, "What is a defibrillator" is an important one for parents, teachers, and caretakers to consider. A defibrillator can save the life of someone experiencing cardiac arrest.

A defibrillator circuit plays an essential role in resuscitating a person by using defibrillators. A defibrillator is essentially a battery that powers an electric shock to stabilize irregular heartbeats. Though the battery actually contains the energy that powers the shock, the defibrillator circuit takes the energy from the battery so it can be used.

The defibrillator circuit stores the energy and waits until the energy is called for. Then, the energy travels through chords that are connected to the chest pads. These chest pads have handles and are placed in two opposing places on a person’s chest to deliver a shock. Sometimes more than one shock needs to be administered before the person regains consciousness and their heartbeat gets back on track.

When Should I Use a Defibrillator?

If you’re lucky, you’ll never have to use a defibrillator or have one used on you. These devices are only used when a person has experienced some kind of trauma, usually a heart attack, and their heartbeats are abnormal.

A heart attack patient’s heartbeat will increase rapidly, restricting blood flow to and from the heart. This becomes dangerous very quickly. When vital organs don’t receive enough blood or oxygen, they start to shutdown. If they shutdown for too long, their organs may be seriously damaged. A person who is not resuscitated quick enough or experiences a failed resuscitation can experience organ failure and even death.

If you’re in a situation where someone collapses and becomes unconscious, you might need to use a defibrillator. Before you even consider using a defibrillator, call 9-1-1 or ask someone to do it for you. Even if you do find a defibrillator it is absolutely critical that an emergency team arrive at the scene as soon as possible.

Thanks to their life saving value, defibrillators are starting to make an appearance in public areas such as pools and airports. If you see one of these (they’re usually hanging on a wall), grab it and get to work. Defibrillators that are placed in public spaces are easy to use and tend to include audio tutorials that give step-by-step instructions on how to use the device.

Defibrillators Can’t Do it All

Defibrillators have saved a lot of lives, but they’re not infallible. They can fail. If any one part of the defibrillator fails, the shock will not be delivered to the patient. For example, if the defibrillator circuit is faulty, the energy may not be carried through the chords to the pads.

Keep in mind that these systems are tested and scrutinized before they’re put on the market. All parts of the defibrillator, including the defibrillator circuit, are tested. These machines are pretty reliable and can save a person’s life.