Defibrillation is used for treatment of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and other heart failures using a defibrillator with gives the heart a dose of electrical energy. Defibrillation was first demonstrated in 1899 by Prevost and Batelli, two physiologists from University of Geneva, Switzerland. Using dogs as there subjects, they noticed that electric charges could cause arrhythmias and also reverse it.

It wasn’t until 1947 that the technique was first used on humans. Claude Beck, professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University used internal paddles on a 14 year old boy who was having surgery for congenital chest defect. He achieved a normal heart rhythm after using the paddles and a heart drug. These early defibrillators used ordinary power sockets with a transformer. Power was hard to control and often resulted in heart cell damage.

In the mid 1950s, and external unit was developed by Dr V. Eskin with assistance by A. Klimov in Frunze, USSR which applied alternating current.

Bernard Lown, in 1959, starting developing and alternative technique using capacitors. This method was used until the late 1980s when a biphasic waveform was introduced.

Today, smaller portable units are available and are carried in all emergency vehicles. A newer device called an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), actually analyzes the heart rhythm and then advises if a shock is necessary or not. These AEDs can be found in public access places such as schools, airports, shopping malls or government offices and can be used by lay persons. These devices are also carried by police and fire officers due to their easy portability and use.