Defibrillator Pads: An Essential Component

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.