The Importance of Proper Pad Positioning

Although this technique is very similar to defibrillation it does differ in one essential key aspect and that is that the shock needs to be synchronized to the R wave of the ECG. If we shock a patient at that point then we can induce ventricular fibrillation which is definitely not the aim of cardioversion. And when it comes to pad placement kind of interesting actually it's really down to operate a preference because there's very few if any studies available to inform our choice of either placing the pads anterior posterior or standard anterior lateral position. But I think really the key message is actually good pad placement doesn't matter which orientation you put them in but you need to make sure you put them