Wednesday, July 27, 2011

50 Joules for successful defibrillation


Introduction:
            Definite protocol for resuscitation after Cardiac arrest  exists and practiced all over the world. But the success lies in early detection and early defibrillation .
It is also seen  after 10 mins of resuscitation if the activity does not return  there it is likely that the patient has residual neurological deficit because of ischaemic encephalopathy.
            We describe here with 1 cases of Cardiac arrest  lasting 21 minutes  and 28  minutes, which was successfully revived with no neurological deficit
Case 1.  A middle aged patient of 48 years undergoing open  Cholicystectomy. The patient  was of ASA- ! with no known abonormality of any parameter. The patient was premedicated with Midazolam 2mg , Pentazocine 30 mg and  induced with Thiopentone 200 mg and intubated with Vecuronium 6mg . The anaesthesia was maintained with Oxygen 33%N2O 66%  , Halothane 0.5- 0.7 % and IPPV Manually. About 45 mins after induction of Anaesthesia the operation was over there was no undue Hemodynamic changes  intraoperatively.  After the end of surgery about 40- 45 mins from the start, limited bagging was done so that  respiratory activity can be noticed , some CO2 accumulation was allowed so as to stimulate the respiration.. Within a short time respiratory activity appeared and the  the patient was allowed to breath spontaneously with 100 % Oxygen  with intermittent support..Then Injection of Neostigmine  and atropine mixture was given slow IV over 3 minutes. Before completion of  all the prostigmine  there was alarm in monitor with bizarre waves, thinking that the lead has come off, it was readjusted and  the same pattern continued, When the radial pulse was examined , there was no pulse. Immidiately it was  thought that the patient has gone  to Ventricular fibrillation which was confirmed with another monitor. Immidiately a defibrillator was called for, Artificial ventilation continued with 100 % Oxygen and external Cardiac massage  commenced . There was  panic in OR ,I started a good and forceful cardiac massage and  the assistants were encouraged to do the same  where pulsatile plethysmographic waves were detected in Pulse Oxymeter  with Saturation of 60 – 75 %. When a BPL defibrillator arrived it did not start because the battery was almost totally discharged The  failed to charge 200 joules even when connected to electricity supply.  The BPL supplier was contacted who advised  to  charge the battery before  charging the defibrillator. With no other option  the external Cardiac massage continued  with full  vigor.   When somebody was fiddling with the defibrillator , it changed to  the Pediatric mode.  By this time more than 18 mins had elapsed  . With the pediatric mode the defibrillator was charged with 50 joules, that was the upper limit  in pediatric setting . Initially it also failed. Again after 3 mins it clicked. With intruption of External cardia c massage. 50 joules were delivered.
Alash ! It worked The rythm was convereted to sinus  witha HR of 60 which increased to 90. The peripheral pulse was plabale and the NIBP recorded was 105/60 mmHg. and SpO2 99-100 %. There was no facility to do an ABG analysis or adminster any Sodi bicarb. The patient was hyperventilated for next 15 mins when ts respiratory effort returned and was vey normal. Consciousness returned too. Post op recovery was totally uneventful. When we checked with the monitor trend graph we found  that the period of fibrillation was around 21 mins. 
Discussion: what could be the cause ?

24 Hrs after surgery with no damage, no memory of any incident



The intresting part of story is that it responded well only to 50 joules, though the common recommendation is to go for 160 - 200 joules. even people apply 300 joules.
Cerebral anoxia was not evident was the patient was on 100 % Oxygen before  during and after the critical incident.

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