RT Book, Section
A1 Reichman, Eric F.
SR Print(0)
ID 57703209
T1 Chapter 31. Transcutaneous Cardiac Pacing
T2 Emergency Medicine Procedures, 2e
YR 2013
FD 2013
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-161352-1
LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=57703209
RD 2024/04/19
AB First  documented  as  a  technique  in  1872,  transcutaneous  cardiac  pacing  (TCP)  was  successfully  demonstrated  in  two  patients  with  underlying  cardiac  disease  and  symptomatic  bradycardia  by  Paul  Zoll  in  1952.1  Studies  involving  open-chest  and  transvenous  pacing,  as  well  as  open-chest  cardiac  massage,  were  occurring  simultaneously  by  other  groups.  Zoll  recognized  the  clinical  difficulty  of  these  approaches  for  the  treatment  of  “ventricular  standstill”  in  an  emergent  setting.1,2  Zoll  and  colleagues  performed  animal  experiments  using  electrodes  placed  in  various  positions  prior  to  the  use  of  subcutaneous  needle  electrodes  at  points  “in  a  line  transversing  the  ventricles”  as  described  in  the  initial  case  report.1  In  1956,  they  described  the  use  of  their  procedure  during  eight  surgical  cases  in  which  cardiac  arrest  occurred,  with  five  patients  successfully  surviving  to  discharge.2  At  this  time,  cardiac  monitoring  during  surgery  was  not  routinely  performed,  thus  the  underlying  rhythm  being  paced  was  not  specifically  determined  in  all  reported  cases.