3. Defibrillation is the definitive treatment for the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias , ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia . Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the affected heart with a device called a defibrillator . This depolarizes a critical mass of the heart muscle, terminates the arrhythmia, and allows normal sinus rhythm to be reestablished by the body's natural pacemaker , in the sinoatrial node of the heart. Defibrillators can be external, transvenous, or implanted, depending on the type of device used or needed. Some external units, known as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), automate the diagnosis of treatable rhythms, meaning that lay responders or bystanders are able to use them successfully with little, or in some cases no training at all.
7. An aortic aneurysm develops and grows slowly. It rarely produces symptoms and is usually only diagnosed by accident during a routine physical exam or on an x ray or ultrasound done for another reason. As the aneurysm grows larger, the risk of bursting with no warning, which causes catastrophic bleeding, rises. A ruptured aortic aneurysm can cause sudden loss of a fatal amount of blood within minutes or it can leak in a series of small bleeds that lead within hours or days to massive bleeding. A leaking aortic aneurysm that is not treated is always fatal. Aneurysmectomy is performed to repair the two most common types of aortic aneurysms: abdominal aortic aneurysms that occur in the abdomen below the kidneys, and thoracic aortic aneurysms that occur in the chest. It is major surgery performed in a hospital under general anesthesia and involves removing debris and then implanting a flexible tube (graft) to replace the enlarged artery. Aneurysmectomy for an aneurysm of the ascending aorta (the first part of the aorta that travels upward from the heart) requires the use of a heart-lung machine that temporarily stops the heart while the aneurysm is repaired. Aneurysmectomy requires a one-week hospital stay; the recovery period is five weeks