All transthoracic defibrillators on the US market use nominally monophasic shock waveforms. However, biphasic waveforms have a lower defibrillation threshold than monophasic waveforms for transthoracic defibrillation of animals and for defibrillation of humans by implantable cardioverter defibrillators. The relative efficacies of Edmark monophasic and Gurvich biphasic transthoracic cardioversion waveforms (200 J into 50 omega) were compared for transthoracic cardioversion in 171 patients undergoing electrophysiologic study for evaluation of ventricular arrhythmias. Patients were randomized in a blinded fashion to receive either a monophasic or a biphasic waveform for the initial shock for conversion of induced ventricular arrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation [VF] = 53, monomorphic ventricular tachycardia [VT] = 80, polymorphic VT = 30, ventricular flutter = 8). Delivered energies for the Edmark and Gurvich waveforms were 215 +/- 11 and 171 +/- 11 J, respectively. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics, use of antiarrhythmic agents, arrhythmia cycle length, or duration of arrhythmia prior to shock for monophasic and biphasic waveform groups. The first shock for all arrhythmias was successful in 75 of 88 patients (85.2%) for the monophasic waveform compared with 81 of 83 patients (97.6%) for the biphasic waveform, p = 0.0054. The first shock for VF was successful in 22 of 28 patients (78.6%) for the monophasic waveform compared with 25 of 25 (100%) for the biphasic waveform, p = 0.0241. The Gurvich biphasic waveforms delivering a mean of 171 J were superior to Edmark monophasic waveforms delivering a mean of 215 J for transthoracic cardioversion of arrhythmias of short duration. This finding may have important implications for the development of future transthoracic defibrillators.