1899 PRÉVOST, Jean-Louis (1790 – 1850); BATTELLI, Federico

La mort par les décharges électriques.

The first defibrillation. “Prévost and Battelli produced ventricular fibrillation in dogs by shocking with weak currents. They then shocked the fibrillating heart with a stronger current—the second, or counter, shock.…

GMN 838.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/606

1947 BECK, Claude Schaeffer (1894 – 1971); PRITCHARD, Walter Herbert (1910 – 1982); ET AL

Ventricular fibrillation of long duration abolished by electric shock.

The first successful defibrillation of a surgical patient, with the chest opened, and the paddles applied directly to the heart. With H.S. Feil.

GMN 2878.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4214

1961 KOUWENHOVEN, William Bennett (1886 – 1975); JUDE, James R. (1928 – 2015); KNICKERBOCKER, G. Guy (1932 – 2022)

A new approach to cardiac resuscitation.

"The pioneers of modern cardiopulmonary resucitation describe their breakthrough technique of combining mouth-to-mouth ventilation, closed chest compressions, and transthoracic defibrillation to treat cardiac arrest" …

GMN 11671 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13872

1962 LOWN, Bernard (1921 – ); AMARASINGHAM, Raghavan; NEUMAN, Jose

New method for terminating cardiac arrythmias; use of synchronized capacitor discharge.

Use of transthoracic direct current countershock of very short duration to avoid the vulnerable period in the cardiac cycle.

GMN 2883.5 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4272

1963 HARKEN, Dwight Emary (1910 – 1993); LOWN, Bernard (1921 – ); ABE, Tadaaki

"Cardioversion" of atrial fibrillation: A report on the treatment of 65 episodes in 50 patients.

"In 1959 Bernard Lown commenced research in his animal laboratory in collaboration with engineer Barouh Berkovits into a technique which involved charging of a bank of capacitors to approximately 1000 volts with an en…

GMN 12259 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14475