Direct Cardiac Effect

A Medical Guide to Understanding TASER ECDs and Effects on the Heart

Summary Conclusion – Do TASER ECDs Affect the Heart?

There is no reliable published data that proves TASER ECDs negatively affect the heart.

 

Learn More - How this Conclusion was Reached:

What is ventricular fibrillation?

VF is a dysrhythmia (defective cardiac rhythm) of rapid, fibrillary movements of the ventricular muscle. VF does not provide adequate cardiac output to sustain life. Unconsciousness occurs within 5 to 15 seconds (s) and death follows quickly unless a perfusing rhythm is re-established.

What are the common causes of VF?

Sufficiently strong electrical shock delivered to the heart, legal drugs (psychotropic, anti-arrhythmic), illegal drugs (especially stimulants), myocardial infarction, certain genetic heart abnormalities, and electrolyte and acid/base imbalances.

How does VF relate to a TASER Electronic Control Device (ECD) exposure?

Because a TASER ECD discharges electricity, there has been speculation that the delivered electrical charge from an ECD could cause VF in humans.

What is an evidence-based conclusion with regard to a TASER ECD and VF?

The preponderance of the data, including all of the human studies, suggests that VF is not caused by ECDs in real-world usage. There is no evidence of important electrocardiogram (ECG) changes, or capture (pacing response of the heart to electrical stimulation), and finite element modeling (FEM) does not suggest a current density in real-world use able to induce fibrillation in humans. Also, epidemiological studies do not find that real-world human ECD use causes VF.

Historical Scientific Overview

There is no reliable published peer-reviewed medical, scientific, engineering, or electrical human study that has found to a reasonable degree of certainty that a TASER ECD, or the amount of net electrical charge delivered as by an ECD, can foreseeably cause VF in a field or training deployment.

Further Evidence - Raw Cardiac Effects Studies with Links:

 

Human cardiovascular effects of a new generation conducted electrical weapon.
This was a prospective study of human subjects during NGCEW training courses. Subjects received a NGCEW probe deployment to the frontal torso in 1 of 3 configurations: 2, 3,or 4 embedded probes and then underwent a 10-s exposure. Before and after vital signs, electrocardiograms (ECGs), and serum troponin I values were obtained. Real-time echocardiography was utilized before, during and after the exposure to evaluate heart rate and rhythm.
Echocardiographic evaluation of TASER X26™ probe deployment into the chests of human volunteers.
Several animal studies have shown that the TASER X26 (TASER International, Scottsdale, Ariz) conducted electrical weapon can electrically capture the myocardium when discharged on the thorax. These results have not been reproduced in human echocardiographic studies.
Physiologic Effects of the TASER After Exercise
Incidents of sudden death following TASER exposure are poorly studied, and substantive links between TASER exposure and sudden death are minimal. The authors studied the effects of a single TASER exposure on markers of physiologic stress in humans.
Presenting rhythm in sudden deaths temporally proximate to discharge of TASER conducted electrical weapons.
Records for 200 cases were received. The presenting rhythm was reported for 56 of 118 subjects who collapsed within 15 minutes (47%). The rhythm was VF in four subjects (7%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3% to 17%) and bradycardia-asystole or PEA in 52 subjects (93%; 95% CI = 83% to 97%).
Absence of electrocardiographic change after prolonged application of a conducted electrical weapon in physically exhausted adults.
Conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) are used by law enforcement for control of subjects by causing neuromuscular incapacitation. There has been scrutiny of CEWs and their potential role in the occasional sudden death of subjects in custody.
 

TASER

Press/Media

Corporate Info

Legal Information

TASER on the web

© 2012 TASER International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.