13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-136

Effects of defibrillator paddle position on technical efficacy and energy requirements of transthoracic electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation

Giovanni Luca Botto, Alessandro Politi, Walter Bonini, Tiziana Broffoni, Roberto Bonatti, Giovanni Ferrari.
Department of Cardiology, S. Anna Hospital, Como, Italy

Introduction

Direct current (DC) defibrillation was introduced by Lown in the early 1960s¹. Cardioversion, the transthoracic application of DC-shocks, remains a widely used and very successful clinical approach to terminate atrial fibrillation (AF) and flutter². For the procedure itself, traditional hand-held paddle electrodes or self-adhesive electrode pads may be used³, and the apex-anterior and antero-posterior chest placements have been shown to be equally effective^3-6. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine in a prospective fashion, the effect of defibrillator paddle position on technical success and DC-shock energy requirements of elective transthoracic electrical cardioversion (TEC) of AF.