Ventricular fibrillation

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Heart, section through the middle

Heart, front view

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Ventricular fibrillation

Alternative Names:

Symptoms:

The person having VF suddenly collapses or falls unconscious, because the brain and muscles have stopped receiving blood from the heart. Within one hour before the collapse (or sudden death from VF), some people complain of symptoms such as chest pain, palpitation, shortness of breath, dizziness, or nausea.

Signs and tests:

The person will be unresponsive. The carotid pulse in the neck and femoral pulse in the groin may be hard or impossible to detect. When listening to the heart with a stethoscope, the heartbeats cannot be heard or they may have varying intensity and be very irregular.

If the person having VF was already in the hospital, or if paramedics have connected the person to a cardiac monitor, the monitor will show a disorganized arrhythmia (VF). The VF in turn can evolve into a flat line or cardiac arrest.

Review Date: 2/7/2005
Reviewed By: Fabian Arnaldo, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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