Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (VF) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (VT)
A defibrillator delivers a dose of electric current to the heart
Although not fully understood, this process depolarizes a large amount of the heart muscle, ending the dysrhythmia
Subsequently, the body’s natural pacemaker in the sinoatrial node of the heart is able to re-establish normal sinus rhythm
A heart which is in asystole (flatline) cannot be restarted by a defibrillator, but would be treated by cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).