Terminating ventricular fibrillation by chest thump.

A 41-year-old man with a surgically closed atrial septal defect presented with anginalike symptoms of 5 years duration. While undergoing coronary arteriorgraphy, the patient sustained ventricular fibrillation which was converted successfully to sinus rhythm by a chest thump. This is the first reported case of such conversion. The mechanism of mechanical conversion from ventricular tachycardia, or fibrillation, to sinus rhythm may be that the mechanical stimulus interrupts a re-entry pathway or depresses ectopic impulses to allow the normal sinoatrial rhythm to emerge.