What are the Nonshockable rhythms?
Shockable rhythms include pulseless ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Nonshockable rhythms include pulseless electrical activity or asystole.
What are the 3 shockable rhythms?
Shockable Rhythms: Ventricular Tachycardia, Ventricular Fibrillation, Supraventricular Tachycardia.
What is non-shockable?
The four are divided into two groups: two that do not require defibrillation (called “non- shockable”) and two that do require defibrillation (“shockable”).
Why is asystole not shockable?
Pulseless electrical activity and asystole or flatlining (3 and 4), in contrast, are non-shockable, so they don’t respond to defibrillation. These rhythms indicate that the heart muscle itself is dysfunctional; it has stopped listening to the orders to contract.
What causes Torsades de Pointes?
Common causes for torsades de pointes include drug-induced QT prolongation and less often diarrhea, low serum magnesium, and low serum potassium or congenital long QT syndrome. It can be seen in malnourished individuals and chronic alcoholics, due to a deficiency in potassium and/or magnesium.
How is VT diagnosed on ECG?
Frequently, this is difficult to see due to the fast rate of the QRS complex. Below is an ECG strip of a patient with VT. See the PP interval when in sinus rhythm then march out the P waves within the wide QRS complex to find the AV dissociation that is present, confirming the diagnosis of VT.
What does AED stand for?
Automated external defibrillator
Automated external defibrillator/Full name
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are portable, life-saving devices designed to treat people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating suddenly and unexpectedly.
Do you shock VT with a pulse?
Under current resuscitation guidelines symptomatic ventricular tachycardia (VT) with a palpable pulse is treated with synchronised cardioversion to avoid inducing ventricular fibrillation (VF), whilst pulseless VT is treated as VF with rapid administration of full defibrillation energy unsynchronised shocks.
Can you survive asystole?
Overall the prognosis is poor, and the survival is even poorer if there is asystole after resuscitation. Data indicate that less than 2% of people with asystole survive. Recent studies do document improved outcomes, but many continue to have residual neurological deficits.
Can you survive a flatline?
In the movies, they sometimes shock a flatlined heart with a defibrillator. That’s a machine that uses an electric pulse to get your heartbeat back to normal. But it doesn’t usually help in real life. Typically, less than 2% of people survive asystole.
What medications can cause torsades?
Other drugs that prolong the QT interval and have been implicated in cases of torsade include phenothiazines, tricyclic antidepressants, lithium carbonate, ziprasidone, cisapride, highly active antiretroviral drugs, high-dose methadone, anthracycline chemotherapeutic agents (eg, doxorubicin, daunomycin), some …
How do you fix torsades?
The torsades rhythm is treated with magnesium sulfate 2 g IV over 1 to 2 minutes, correction of hypokalemia, pacing or isoproterenol to increase heart rate, and correction of the cause.